In a move designed to signal the e-commerce sector is not unnerved by the war threat facing the regional economy, SmarterWin, a regional private sector web services firm and channel partner with MSN Arabia, announced the launch of Middle East wide franchise opportunities for potential business partners based across the region.
Both MSN Arabia and SmarterWin believe regional e commerce holds the promise of tremendous growth, and new opportunities for business to expand their markets. In 2002 the total world trade through Internet was estimated to be $2.29 billion. This is expected to grow to $12.8 billion by 2006.
Arab trade in 2001 exceeded $250 billion, out of which $400 million online sales were carried out online in B2B and B2C sectors. A substantial portion of this online business is via banking. Projections for Arab trade online are three billion dollar for 2003. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
