U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe announced a partnership to promote U.S. trade and investment expansion.

"The joint effort will focus on increasing awareness of the economic benefits of trade, specifically the important role that small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) can play in growing America’s export economy."

"In a globally-connected economy, American companies have to consider the entire  marketplace as they look to grow their businesses and create jobs. The fact is, 95 percent of worldwide consumers live outside U.S. borders. Whether they are large or small, American businesses cannot afford to limit their options when it comes to selling their goods and services. The Obama Administration is committed to ensuring that SME exporters are aware of export opportunities and federal resources that are available to help them establish a foothold abroad, increase their exports, and support additional good-paying American jobs. We look forward to working with eBay Inc. to help America’s small and medium-sized businesses thrive at home and around the world.”

"This partnership advances the Obama Administration’s National Export Initiative, an ambitious plan to sell more American goods and services into foreign markets. Working together, this agreement between eBay and the Department of Commerce will build out U.S. government export programs to provide more inclusive tools for technology-enabled traders and educate these businesses on export-focused products and services already available to them. "

"The MOA announcement comes after the U.S. Department of Commerce announced earlier this month that U.S. exports in 2013 set a new record for the fourth straight year. U.S. exports reached $2.3 trillion in 2013, up nearly $700 billion since 2009. SMEs have played a critical role in driving record export growth. Yesterday, the Department announced that U.S. exports supported more than 11.3 million jobs in 2013, up 1.6 million jobs since 2009."

"In 2013, eBay Inc. enabled more than $45 billion in cross border trade commerce and payments. An eBay studyanalyzing trade flow data from eBay’s marketplace found that 97 percent of U.S. commercial sellers on eBay export. Of these small businesses, 81 percent export to five or more foreign countries."

A recent PayPal/Nielson report estimates cross-border demand for online retail of American products was worth $23 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow to $83 billion by 2018, creating a tremendous opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs across the world to tap into this demand.

According to this, Asian telecom operators Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), HKT (Hong Kong), KDDI (Japan) andSK Planet (South Korea) have jointly announced the formation of the Asia NFC Alliance, with the support of the GSMA.

"The Alliance aims to promote cross-border mobile NFC services. The Asia NFC Alliance aims to extend the service coverage of these mobile operators from within a country to the whole Asian region and furthermore to provide global mobile NFC services across industries, including transportation, retail, finance, tourism and others. Subscribers are set to be able to access NFC applications across national borders, whether in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea or other countries in the future."

"In December 2013, HKT has partnered with banking consortium JETCO to expand NFC-based mobile payments services."

Dotcom River has recently announced a three-year span report called the “eCommerce Poland 2013 Report” covering the years 2011 through 2013. Its main focus is to reflect an objective standpoint for Poland’s ecommerce business potential.

"The report highlights salient market factors which influence industry-based investors, such as the annual increase in the number of customers who shop online reported to the population of the country. The report also signals that the ecommerce market rose to 30% in 2012, as compared to 2011, a notable increase and luring for foreign investors and online retailers."

"According to the report, at a European level, the Polish ecommerce market stays in between extremes with a percentage of population buying online between 30% and 50%, which means that Poland is a rapidly developing ecommerce market, along with Ireland, Austria or The Czech Republic. Poland stays between Germany, UK, France, Norway or Sweden whose percentage of online shoppers passes well beyond 50% and Spain and Italy whose percentage of online shoppers drops under the 30% barrier."

"The Polish ecommerce market is currently estimated at EUR 6.5 billion, consistent with its growth of over 20 percent year-over-year."

"The growing popularity of online shopping, including mobile transactions, wider access to broadband internet, dissemination of courier services and non-cash payments, as well as personalization of offers and a higher attention to quality of service are some of the dominant factors contributing to the fast development of ecommerce in Poland. For 2013, there is a 68% penetration rate of Polish internet users, among whom 48% online buyers."

"The present Executive Summary Report sums up a three-year span comprehensive study, appealing to 14,000 Polish e-retailers and e-consumers. "

According to this, Israeli authorities have announced the citizens that the use of Bitcoin’s digital currency may pose threats and that regulations are under proposal for implementation in the local market.

"Israel's central bank governor, Karnit Flug, has held a meeting with regulators of the capital and insurance markets, Tax Authority, and the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority. Analyses are performed for the issuing of solutions related to the use of, and trade in, virtual currencies. Analysis is focused on unpredicted macro effects, their legal standing, their regulation, money laundering and terror financing risks, taxation, and consumer protection."

"Bitcoin, a decentralised open source electronic money network, uses cryptography to secure transactions by means of peer-to- peer (PTP) networks and the use of anonymous transfers and does not require centralized financial institutions. In 2013, Bitcoin`s exchange rates jumped by 700% in the first quarter, reaching over USD 1,200 by the end of the year."

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Source Cloud-iq[/caption]