PH ranked 89th in e-commerce growth

THE PHILIPPINES ranked 89th out of 137 countries and territories worldwide in terms of readiness to support online shopping and other business-to-consumer electronic commerce (or B2C e-commerce), according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

Among emerging economies in Asia and Oceania, the Philippines ranked 9th in the Unctad’s B2C Ecommerce Index 2016. In comparison, neighboring Malaysia ranked 4th among developing economies in the region and 10th among such economies worldwide.

Unctad said an increasing number of countries were designing national policies and strategies to harness the full potential of e-com- merce for economic development.

The New York-based consultancy forecasts global e-commerce retail revenue to reach $1.2 trillion in 2016, up 16 percent from $994 billion in 2015.

According to the UN agency, the index—which came out for the first time since its debut in 2014—can help policy makers assess up to what extent their economies are ready for e-com- merce and what areas are in greatest need for improvement. In the maiden edition, no ranking is available for the Philippines.

The updated index is composed of four indicators: Internet-use penetration, secure servers per one million inhabitants, creditcard penetration and a postal reliability score.

“The straightforwardness and transparency of the index allow countries to compare how they perform in different areas,” the Unctad said.

The index showed Internet penetration in the Philippines at 40 percent. Among adult consumers, only 3 percent have credit cards. There are only 52 secure servers, very important for purchasing online, per million people.

Also, the Philippines was rated 48 percent in terms of the reliability of postal services based on data from the Universal Postal Union.

Overall, these four factors reflect an index value of 35.7 points.

Luxembourg, which retained its position at the top of the index, enjoyed 89.7 points. In this country, 95 percent of the population has access to the Internet and 69 percent of consumers 15 years and older have credit cards.