Muscat – The Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED) held a workshop on Wednesday in its efforts to encourage and expand the culture of e-commerce and support 100 SMEs to register on the Amazon e-commerce platform.

ASMED is targeting 56 entrepreneurs to join the platform in the first phase, all of who participated in the workshop.

“The initiative aims to stimulate the Omani economy, support owners of SMEs, and promote Omani products through the world-famous platform,” an ASMED official said. “In the programme, experts will conduct workshops for SME owners, training them as well as providing information related to e-commerce.”

The sultanate’s e-commerce market – valued at US$2.19bn in 2020 – is expected to grow to US$6.52bn by 2026, according to an industry report released by market intelligence and advisory firm Mordor Intelligence.

The e-commerce market in Oman, which currently accounts for a very small portion of the total retail sales, has ample opportunities to grow in the future, the report titled E-commerce Market in Oman (2021-2026) said.