Jakarta, 13 July 2020: ERIA’s Capacity Building Program has launched a series of on-line workshops on e-commerce. The seven modules, designed for government officials, will be held over two months in July and August 2020.

The e-workshop series kicked off on the 6 July with a virtual introduction. The session was opened by Mr Jeremy Gross, ERIA’s Director of Capacity Building. In his opening remarks, Jeremy highlighted the importance of capacity building to bridge the gap between expertise and officials to better understand the challenges they face. 

Mr Sven Callebaut, the lead facilitator of the E-workshop series, then gave a further explanation about the on-line course with its self-paced learning, live discussion sessions, and on-line assessment and feedback.

Materials for Module 1, focusing on the basics of e-commerce, such as terminology, were also posted on 6 July. Then, from 6-8 July, participants studied the module materials in preparation for a live online session with Mr Rahul Bhatnagar, an e-commerce and digital economy strategic consultant, on 8 July. This was an opportunity to talk in more detail about the contents of the module and respond to questions from the participants. Discussions were held around: (i) Challenges in E-Commerce; (ii) E-Commerce Data Policy; and (iii) the importance of government to drive the significant impact of the growth of E-Commerce in Myanmar.

Ms Listi Irawati, the Programme Manager at the Australian Mission to ASEAN, closed the session on 8 July by congratulating ERIA for this on-line training programme and wishing participants well for the program. The Australian Government funds ERIA’s Capacity Building Program.

The module continued on 9 July with participants undertaking tests on-line based on the materials. The results were posted on the 10 July. Altogether 23 government officials from Myanmar participated in the on-line learning experience, with all scoring well in the test!