DTI sees more MSMEs to start doing e-commerce

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) targets to have 500,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in e-commerce by 2022, five times the projected figure for next year.

By 2022, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said e-commerce activities would possibly account for half of the country’s economy, noting that “the shift to the digital platform was just around the corner.”

Lopez said this in a briefing following a forum on e-commerce yesterday. He announced these figures ahead of the release of an updated road map for e-commerce in the Philippines.

The current road map for the sector outlined targets for 2016 to 2020. By the end of the period covered, 100,000 MSMEs should already be doing e-commerce, while the sector should already be contributing 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, up from 10 percent in 2015.

“I’ll be more optimistic. Maybe it shouldn’t just be 25 percent. It can go up to 40 [percent], even 50 percent,” he said, pointing to the projection for 2022.

He told reporters that hitting the 500,000 MSME-mark by 2022 was an “easy target.”

The issue is that the government is still unsure where it is exactly at in hitting its 2020 goals.
Ronie Balboeran, a consultant tapped by the DTI, said there was still no clear definition of what would qualify as an e-commerce player.