The ASEAN Online Sale Day (AOSD), an initiative of Vietnam within ASEAN’s cooperative framework, is to take place on e-commerce platforms on August 8, the Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (IDEA) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced.

It will be the first online shopping event conducted simultaneously throughout the entire ASEAN region.

IDEA Director Dang Hoang Hai said that the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on E-commerce (ACCEC) has officially launched a website dedicated to AOSD, at http://asean.onlinesaleday.com, which will feature businesses participating in the programme.

More than 100 e-commerce businesses from ASEAN member nations are expected to join the online retail gala, selling a range of goods and services at special prices on August 8.

ASEAN’s e-commerce sector is expected to triple by 2025, from 100 billion USD to 300 billion USD. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, e-commerce was a highlight of economic growth, as consumers and businesses increasingly shopped online.

AOSD is designed to promote and encourage consumers and businesses to buy and sell on reputable e-commerce platforms in the region.

The event is hoped to support and facilitate the development of commerce and e-commerce in the region, while promoting digital integration and building trust and credibility for ASEAN businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises trying to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic.

According to a study conducted by Bain & Company in 2017, ASEAN’s digital economy is expected to reach 8.5 percent of GDP by 2025 from only 1.3 percent in 2015.

In the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, digital conversion speed is accelerating strongly across fields such as education, banking, healthcare, and commerce.

As a result, ASEAN has the conditions necessary to hasten its digital transformation through the existing ecosystem of more than 300 million mobile and broadband users in the region.

Hai said AOSD will be held on August 8 every year as an occasion to promote digital commerce in the region and strengthen cooperation among stakeholders, including government agencies, businesses, and consumers.

The programme also aims to promote and develop appropriate initiatives and policies and innovative technologies to foster cross-border e-commerce in the region.

It is also an activity that contributes to the implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on E-commerce, Hai added.