Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been traditionally understood as the buying and selling of products and services through electronic means, and even though such operations are conducted electronically, payment and/or delivery of the product or service not necessarily must be made online (WTO, 2013).

The continuous evolution of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the effects of digitization, resulting from the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, have had a tree-fold impact on e-commerce: i) New digital products and services; ii) major intermediary digital platforms between buyers and sellers; and iii) new digital payment methods, such as the cryptocurrency, PayPal or the blockchain technology. These three trends, along with the increased access that the world population is gaining to ICTs, enhance the possibilities of promoting electronic commerce, both in its home version and in cross-border operations. Thus, by 2017, e-commerce is estimated to account for 29% of global international transactions (Ecommerce Foundation, 2015).

Changes generated by information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been a challenge to political and economic stakeholders, changing forever the way of doing business. E-commerce improves the competitiveness and efficiency of public and private organizations thanks to the implementation of online tools that bring customers and users, as well as partners and suppliers, closer. We do not refer only to the implementation of technologies to automate existing processes, but also to the need to modify and improve exchanges through electronic communication tools. Organizations should continuously review their strategies in order to take advantage of the potential offered by ICTs.

Latin America and the Caribbean has more than 378,190,371 million users of Internet (Internet World Stats, June 2016). In addition, some countries in the region have progressively introduced clauses related to e-commerce in agreements signed among them: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Chile, the member countries of the Central American Common Market and those making up the CARIFORUM. However, this issue is not restricted to e-commerce. The countries in the region are seeking to incorporate ICTs into their government system, their government institutions and the very act of governing, thus advancing towards e-government.

Therefore, prospects about the growing importance that e-commerce will gain in the volume of international transactions, in addition to the technological characteristics of the Latin American and Caribbean region in tandem with initiatives that have been undertaken in this area, make the region an optimal space for taking advantage of the opportunities for growth and socio-economic development through ICTs, without ignoring the multiple current challenges. Thus, e-commerce is highlighted as a crucial and unavoidable tool for the international insertion of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 2007, UNCTAD has been developing online initiatives for virtual training to improve the skills of regional actors in the area of trade and development. In 2014, jointly with the Permanent Secretariat of SELA, and in 2015, in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), UNCTAD conducted online learning courses on the legal aspects of e-commerce in English and Spanish, which were well accepted by the participating Latin American and Caribbean institutions.

As a follow-up to the recommendation by the Latin American Council of SELA that efforts should be made to better use and benefit from ICTs and pursuant to the demand for training in the field of e-commerce, the Permanent Secretariat of SELA included in its Work Programme for 2017 Activity I.3.2. UNCTAD-SELA Course: "Electronic commerce in practice as a tool to promote trade facilitation," being jointly organized with UNCTAD. This distance learning course aims to train those interested in the major topics related to e-commerce: e-government, e-management, regulation, technology, finance, payment, logistics, marketing, sales and human resources. The course will take place through UNCTAD’s distance learning platform of the TrainForTrade Programme.