Publication: A Regional Virtual Market Place for Middle East and North Africa : Milestone Report
Date
2010-09
ISSN
Published
2010-09
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The Regional Virtual Market Place (RVMP)
is an innovative project aiming at fostering regional
economic growth and integration in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) region as well as its integration with the
rest of the world. In concrete terms, the RVMP will link
buyers and sellers from the MENA region through an
electronic platform, a website. The clients of such a
platform would be firms that cannot afford to market their
products abroad (participation to trade fairs, advertising,
and hiring export consultants) or to conduct costly market
research to identify business opportunities. Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered to be the main
target of this initiative. A RVMP will be the adequate tool
to promote their products, at low cost, in international
markets and learn about clients expectations through their
posted requests (for instance: a pharmaceutical SME in
Belgium looking for some North African plants' oil
extracts with some specific characteristics will be able to
post a request through the platform). This RVMP would be
likely to address the persistent market failure of access to
markets by providing a virtual platform for North-South and
South-South trade. It will also address information
asymmetries by providing the sellers with information about
the buyers' expectations and the buyers with
information about the seller's trustworthiness (through
ratings provided by previous buyers, similar to the eBay
system, or trustworthy national institutions like chambers
of commerce).
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. A Regional Virtual Market Place for Middle East and North Africa : Milestone Report. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/302ec664-ca22-5a30-8cb5-67482af4ead6 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”