Rice put up for sale on An Giang Province's local platform "Sản phẩm An Giang" (sanphamangiang.com). The national platform would act as an e-commerce hub connecting all local platforms. — VNA/VNS Photo Công Mạo

HÀ NỘI — Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (VEDA) is developing an e-commerce platform that would act as a national hub connecting all local platforms across the country.

A VEDA representative said the platform, named Sàn Việt, would help narrow the e-commerce development gap between provinces and act as a national marketplace for local products, especially OCOPs (products in the One Commune One Product Programme).

"Sàn Việt will improve the competitive advantages of local products and help shape a sound e-commerce sector in the country," said the representative.

He also said the platform would be outfitted with marketing tools that allow merchants to boost their online sales more easily.

Chairman of Vietnam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) Nguyễn Ngọc Dũng, however, believed that the platform could not transform the e-commerce landscape overnight, given that e-commerce remains a closed book to many OCOP producers in certain provinces.

"They don't even know how to sell their products online, let alone make use of delivery and payment systems," said Dũng.

The chairman said a large-sized e-commerce platform in Việt Nam, on average, processes 800,000 transactions daily. The figure is just a drop in the bucket for the country's vast population of 100 million.

He said VECOM would cooperate with local authorities in promoting the growth of e-commerce in the short term. He called on VEDA to dispatch specialists to provinces with slow-growing e-commerce to bring them up to speed.

In fact, the situation is not all doom and gloom. There are plenty of provinces that have managed to put e-commerce to good use, such as Bắc Giang Province. Its local platform, named Sàn 24h, has become a vibrant marketplace for its local specialties with dozens of millions of transactions having been processed to date.

Chairman of Bắc Giang Province Lê Ánh Dương underlined the need for technical support to raise awareness of e-commerce among local farmers. He said the province had aimed to bring all its OCOPs of three stars and above to the national platform in the short term.

Cần Thơ is another city ahead of the curve with its up-and-running local platform Chợ nông sản Cần Thơ.

Deputy Director of Cần Thơ's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Trần Thái Nghiêm said the national platform would be a big push to Chợ nông sản Cần Thơ, expanding its customer base considerably.

He also said the department was working on a scheme to apply 3D virtual exhibitions to all its local agricultural products on the platform.

Lê Thanh Dũng, director of TSIM Company, said reasonable prices and good services hold the key to the success of an e-commerce platform. Large-sized platforms such as Tiki, Shopee, and Lazada are well aware of that and have launched countless discount programmes to draw in customers. — VNS