The UAE topped the Arab countries and the countries of the West Asian region in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) index of the best performing countries in terms of consumer e-commerce, and ranked 37th in the world in the index this year. According to "UNCTAD", the percentage of individuals who use Internet services in the UAE has reached about 99 percent, which is among the highest in the world. While the percentage of individuals over the age of 15 who had a bank account was 88 percent.
Switzerland came first in the world in the index this year, instead of the Netherlands, which came at the top of the index last year, and this year fell to second place. According to UNCTAD estimates, 97 percent of individuals use the Internet in Switzerland. The index measures the degree of willingness of countries to switch to e-commerce, whose global value in 2019 reached $4.4 trillion, with an average increase of 7 percent compared to 2018. Each country is evaluated on the basis of the security of Internet services (61 percent for the UAE) and the reliability of the structure. The infrastructure of postal services (64 percent for the UAE), the ratio of internet users to the total population, and the ratio of people who have a bank account to the total population over the age of 15.
Denmark ranked third, followed by Singapore, Britain, Germany, Finland, then Ireland, Norway and Hong Kong - China in the top ten in the index.
UNCTAD indicated in the results report for the current year that the pandemic highlighted the need to accelerate the pace at the level of electronic transformation and strengthen the necessary infrastructure for this, as the gap between the countries of the world at this level is still wide even among the G20 countries, the difference between the percentages of people who rely on online shopping is very large, between 3 percent in India and 87 percent in Britain, for example.
Source (Al Khaleej Emirates Newspaper, Edited)
