Digital economy observer Izzudin Al Farras Adha believes that the government can implement a ban on providing promotional facilities for imported products sold via e-commerce.

"The prohibition on providing promotional facilities should be applied to imported e-commerce products," said Farras to ANTARA in Jakarta, Wednesday.

According to him, this is one of the steps that can be taken so that domestic products, especially from MSMEs, are no less competitive with imported products sold in e-commerce.

Next, Farras also believes that the government needs to require the marking of imported products by trading businesses through an electronic system (PMSE).

"With tagging, the government can get a real picture of the flood of imported products," he explained.

Apart from that, Farras also suggested setting the window display percentage for domestic products at PMSE, as there are regulations for modern retail. He said that at least 30 percent of the display cases at PMSE should be filled with domestic products. Thus, he said, the presence of imported products does not completely control e-commerce.

Previously, Farras had appreciated one of the government's efforts to protect MSMEs in the country from the onslaught of network-based businesses, namely through the ratification of Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 31 of 2023 concerning Business Licensing, Advertising, Guidance and Supervision of Business Actors in Trade Through Electronic Systems.

Through this regulation, the government regulates the separation between social media and social commerce. Apart from that, there is also a minimum price setting of 100 United States dollars per unit for finished goods from overseas which are sold directly by traders to Indonesia via cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Through Minister of Trade Regulation 31/2023, social commerce platforms are also prohibited from facilitating trade. Social commerce platforms can only promote goods and services, but cannot open transaction facilities.