Working group on measuring e-commerce and the digital economy, third meeting

The third meeting of the Working Group on Measuring Electronic Commerce and the Digital Economy will be held on 28 and 29 November 2022. The meeting will open at 11 a.m. on Monday, 28 November.

Background and purpose
The Working Group aims to advance cooperation on measuring electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the digital economy and enhance the availability, quality, comparability, usability and relevance of statistics on e-commerce and the digital economy, with a view to supporting evidence-based policymaking, in particular in developing countries. The Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy, at its fifth session in April 2022, agreed on the following topics for the third meeting of the Working Group:
(a) Progress in measuring work on e-commerce and the digital economy and knowledge resources by relevant international organizations;
(b) Defining the digital economy for statistical purposes;
(c) Mechanism to implement web scraping techniques and facilitate data transfers to produce official statistics on e-commerce and the digital economy;
(d) Measuring the gender dimension in e-commerce and the digital economy.
Further information and documentation for this meeting can be found at Working Group, third meeting.

Written contributions
To facilitate deliberations and the exchange of experiences on the topics to be discussed, member States and observers are requested to submit written contributions to UNCTAD by Friday, 4 November 2022. Contributions should be a maximum of 10 pages and will be made available at the meeting in the form and language in which they are received. Contributions by international organizations, national statistical offices and other producers of official statistics are particularly welcome with regard to the following:
• Recent examples of good practices and lessons learned in attempts to measure e-commerce, to inform agenda item (a);
• Examples of working definitions of the digital economy used by national statistical offices, to inform agenda item (b);
• Experiences in using web scraping techniques or establishing mechanisms for data transfers between public and private sector stakeholders, to produce statistics that supplement the survey-based collection of data on e-commerce and the digital economy, to inform agenda item (c);
•National experiences in measuring the gender dimension in e-commerce and the digitaleconomy, including disaggregating existing indicators by gender, developing new indicators orusing proxies to measure the participation of women in the digital economy, to inform agendaitem (d).

Participation
This meeting is open to all member States of UNCTAD. Member State representatives wishing to attend the meeting are requested to provide their credentials to UNCTAD by Friday, 28 October 2022. They should have relevant expertise in producing official statistics, such as at government ministries or national statistical offices.
Other participants that may be invited include representatives from international organizations involved in measuring e-commerce and the digital economy; representatives from national, regional and international research networks in the digital economy; and specialists from civil society, the private sector and academia, as appropriate. Such organizations are requested to inform UNCTAD of the names of their representatives by the same date.
Online registration at Working Group, third meeting is mandatory for all those wishing to attend the meeting. Registration requires uploading an official letter of nomination to represent an organization at this meeting. For government representatives, a note verbale or an email from the permanent mission in Geneva will suffice. Inquiries regarding registration should be addressed to [email protected] and/or [email protected].

Logistics
The session will be conducted through a remote simultaneous interpretation platform with the six official languages of the United Nations. A link to the formal virtual meeting will be sent to registered participants, at the email address used for registration, one day in advance of the start of the session.
For in-person attendance, before entering the Palais des Nations, participants are requested to collect their badges from the United Nations Security Service, at Villa Les Feuillantines, 13 Avenue de la Paix. The Security Service is open from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Because of the security measures in force, participants are strongly advised to arrive before 9 a.m. to complete entry procedures in good time and proceed to the meeting in Building E of the Palais through the Peace Gate bis. Participants are requested to carry a passport or similar national identity card with them. Taxis are not allowed to enter the grounds of the Palais des Nations. Visitors should therefore be dropped off at the indicated entrance gates. Furthermore, luggage may not be brought into the buildings unless the Security Service gives special clearance.

 

Further information and contact details
Substantive inquiries should be addressed to Ms. Scarlett Fondeur; email: [email protected].