Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian Ministry of Trade has issued a decree requiring foreigne-commerce firms to set up a representative office in the Southeast Asiancountry.

The new decreewill be effective in six months from the date of issuance on May 13.

The policywill be applicable to the operators that have transactions with more than 1,000consumers and/or have sent more than 1,000  packages to consumers in one year period.

Last year,President Joko Widodo signed a governmental regulation concerning trade viaelectronic systems or e-commerce platforms.

According tothe regulation, foreign business operators who actively bid and conductelectronic trading to consumers domiciled in Indonesian jurisdiction who meetcertain criteria, for example, the number of transactions, transaction value,number of shipping packages, and the number of traffic or accessors, areconsidered to meet physical presence in Indonesia.

Foreigne-commerce firms are required to have, include, or convey the identity of aclear legal subject and meet the provisions of the laws and regulations inexport and import as well as information and electronic transactions.

In addition,in conducting transactions, these business actors are obliged to assistgovernment programmes, amongothers, prioritising trade ingoods and domestic products.

They are also requiredto use Indonesian high-level domain names (.id) for Electronic Systems in the formof internet sites and store data and information related to financialtransactions for a minimum period of 10 years./.