On September 16, Macao made its inaugural appearance at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum, marking a significant milestone for the city. During the forum, Lam Hoi Kin, Director of the Department of External Trade and Economic Cooperation under Macao's Economic and Technological Development Bureau, stated that for a small economy like Macao, open and multilateral cooperation frameworks alongside proactive adaptation to market shifts are crucial foundations for fostering economic growth and resilience. Lam further noted that digitalization is becoming a vital instrument for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to broaden their market reach, with cross-border e-commerce presenting one of the most promising breakthrough opportunities.

This thematic seminar constitutes Macao's first-ever event at the WTO Public Forum. The initiative follows a visit by Macao's Chief Executive, Sam Hou Fai, to the WTO headquarters in Geneva this past April, where he pledged Macao's active participation in this year's forum to share its development experiences as a small economy and strengthen interactions with other WTO members. As a long-standing WTO member, Macao is utilizing this international platform to showcase its progress in promoting cross-border e-commerce and to offer valuable references for other small economies and least-developed members aiming to enhance their trade capacities and deepen their integration into the multilateral trading system.

Cross-border e-commerce represents a fresh opportunity for Macao

Lam highlighted that, as a global tourism and leisure hub, Macao has welcomed between 30 million and 40 million visitors annually in recent years. This substantial influx of tourists creates a solid foundation for SMEs to expand their market presence. In response to evolving consumer behaviors and digital technological advancements, Macao is now merging its offline tourism consumption with cross-border e-commerce, allowing visitors to transition from consuming in Macao to engaging in continuous online shopping after their trips. Several years ago, Macao began encouraging MSMEs to adopt B2B e-commerce platforms and establish their own commercial websites, enabling tourists to browse products before arriving, make purchases during their stay, and continue buying once they return home. This strategy is breaking down the spatial constraints of traditional tourism consumption: local enterprises are not only serving on-site visitors but also leveraging digital platforms to directly access global consumers, broaden their business scope, and cultivate brand recognition. With shifts in consumer behavior, the rapid growth of short videos, live streaming, and online shopping has prompted Macao to adapt its support mechanisms for MSMEs. Starting in 2022, Macao backed the industry's establishment of the Macao Live Streaming Service Center and introduced one-stop cross-border e-commerce services. These services cover everything from product digitalization and digital marketing to e-commerce platform integration, cross-border settlement, product selection, and logistics consolidation, with a primary focus on helping Macao's MSMEs penetrate the mainland China market. Lam noted that this one-stop approach lowers the barriers to entry into cross-border e-commerce, with nearly 400 enterprises already establishing such operations through these services. The initiative was recently featured in the 2026 World Internet Conference Cross-Border E-Commerce Practice Case Collection.

Cross-border e-commerce is not merely altering sales channels for enterprises; it is also forging new avenues for employment and entrepreneurship. Lam pointed out that the expanding e-commerce ecosystem is opening up fresh prospects for youth, women, and content creators. Macao is supporting industry efforts to host live-stream shopping festivals on major mainland e-commerce platforms while simultaneously offering professional training programs to equip young people and entrepreneurs with the skills needed for live-stream sales and cross-border e-commerce operations.

Converting traditional tourism strengths into digital trade advantages

Concurrently, Macao is extending its geographic and institutional advantages to a broader international arena. Last year, Macao expanded its cross-border e-commerce promotional campaigns to Portugal and France, organizing origin-tracing live-stream events in Lisbon and Porto. Additionally, Macao established the China-France-Portugal Import and Export Product Selection Center, aiming to assist high-quality Chinese brands in entering international markets while helping European brands access the mainland Chinese market through Macao. This year, Macao launched the Macao Signature brand initiative, debuting internationally in France. Plans are underway to select 20 representative enterprises and 10 live-streaming influencers this October to undertake promotional activities designed to help Macao's businesses further expand overseas.

These efforts illustrate how Macao's conventional status as a tourist destination is being transformed into a digital trade advantage that links consumers, businesses, and markets. Given its limited domestic market size, Macao lacks the conditions to build an e-commerce sector reliant on a large local consumer base. Thus, its cross-border e-commerce strategy emphasizes connectivity: linking the vast mainland Chinese consumer market on one side, and Portuguese-speaking nations, France, and broader international markets on the other. This is achieved by capitalizing on Macao's established networks in international tourism, trade, and external exchanges to create new market entry points for SMEs. This is also the key message Macao aims to convey at its first WTO Public Forum appearance: for small economies, scale does not dictate the manner of their participation in global trade. By leveraging digital technology to lower market access barriers, fostering government-industry collaboration to refine service systems, and expanding market linkages through international cooperation, small economies can carve out their own niches in the evolving global trade environment. The thematic seminar organized by Macao took place on September 16, moderated by Feng An'er, Trade Policy Officer at the International Trade Centre, and featured remarks and dialogue from Lam Hoi Kin of Macao's Economic and Technological Development Bureau, Emmanuelle Ganne, WTO Lead on Digital Trade and Frontier Technologies, Tai Hin Ieong, President of the Macao Live Streaming Association, and Chris Pereira, Founder and CEO of Mei Xun.