Half of companies receive
orders over the Internet

There is no legislation yet
regulating electronic transactions

Lebanon is one the best equipped countries for the development of e-commerce according to a recently published United Nations report.

The Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Information Economy Report 2015 said that 40 percent of the country’s small enterprises, with ten to 49 employees, and 55 percent of medium sized enterprises, with 50-249 employees, receive orders over the Internet.

According to Salam Yamout, Head of the ICT Committee at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, this boost is due to the activity of the private sector. “The public sector has begun implementing the e-strategy, but the growth is still latent and has not yet reached the required level,” she said. Efforts are ongoing to push this development further, according to Yamout

The report said that airline ticket reservations, mobile phones, event tickets, and e-books are the top e-sold products in the Middle East and Africa. According to Yamout, the diaspora plays a major role in boosting online shopping. “A high rate of transactions and shopping consists of flowers, sweets, and gift items that Lebanese send to their families abroad,” she said. According to her, e-taxation and online banking also have a positive impact on developing e-commerce.

The country still has no legislation for electronic transactions or consumer protection, but has draft laws. “When we reach a law that protects e-data and electronic signatures, we would have achieved a major step forward in the development of this domain,” she said.