Fostering participation in digital trade for ASEAN MSMEs

This paper provides a broad overview of some of the issues that digital trade raises for ASEAN countries and its MSMEs, including new opportunities that digitalisation presents for ASEAN firms to increase trade. However, it shows that adoption of relatively simple digital tools, such as webpages, remains relatively low, constraining the ability of ASEAN SMEs to engage in trade as exporters and importers. The paper argues that, to benefit from digital trade, policy makers need to consider issues related to accessing digital networks jointly with a range of old and new trade issues.