The Vietnamese High-Quality Goods Exchange holds its first ever online fair to serve the Tet holiday in January. — VNA/VNS Photo Mỹ Phương

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) plans to accelerate the implementation of the national e-commerce development master plan of 2021-25 to keep up with the growth of digital trading activities.

Head of the MoIT's E-Commerce and Digital Economy Department Đặng Hoàng Hải said: “By 2020, 53 per cent of the population participated in online shopping.” 

“Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, local e-commerce revenue grew 18 per cent, reaching US$11.8 billion, accounting for 5.5 per cent of total retail sales, consumer goods and services nationwide," he added

The MoIT representative said with the support of electronic payments it would focus on developing e-commerce infrastructure, building and perfecting institutions and legal framework for e-commerce, creating a transparent and favourable legal environment for businesses and consumers in Việt Nam.

He said Việt Nam was considered one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia, adding that with a population of more than 97 million people and a big proportion of young people with high internet access, Việt Nam's e-commerce market will continue to grow.

According to industry insiders, e-commerce will continue to grow strongly in 2021 and create new impetus for economic growth, creating an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to build new business strategies and approach modern distribution channels to expand markets and recover from the pandemic.

Hà Nội, as one of the two leading cities in e-commerce development, plans to have online retail sales increase by 20 per cent by 2025 when 55 per cent of people are hoped to participate in online shopping and 50 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises would do business on e-commerce floors.

Deputy director of the city’s Department of Industry and Trade Trần Thị Phương Lan said: “The department continues to open seminars, training courses on e-commerce, including many activities in co-ordination with big digital platforms such as Google, Alibaba and Amazon for local businesses to increase their business results in the online environment."

Director of Co.opmart Hà Nội supermarket Nguyễn Thị Kim Dung said her supermarket would develop an e-commerce website combining multi-channel sales this year.

At the same time, the MoIT's E-Commerce and Digital Economy Department would implement the GoOnline programme in 2021 to accompany local businesses. He said the programme would include telecommunications, technology, and e-commerce systems, manufacturers, traders and individuals nationwide.

According to the ministry, it will strengthen co-ordination, inspection, examination and violation handling in e-commerce, as well as step-up training for State management officials and owners of e-commerce exchanges on protected trademarks to solve disputes and complaints. This will also help detect counterfeit products, goods of unknown origin and goods infringing intellectual property rights.

Last year, the MoIT applied blockchain technology to trace the origin of goods for some agricultural products to improve the brand and promote exports of agricultural products to developed countries as the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was ratified.

The ministry also built a total solution for logistics service exchanges between logistics businesses and shippers to facilitate e-commerce delivery services and supported businesses to apply technology in digital transformation.

Together with the national master plan, the MoIT will submit to the Government an amended decree on e-commerce to enhance the integration, connection and sharing of data between it and cities and provinces through the National Public Service Portal.

The MoIT will develop more systems to serve the ministry’s e-government and training programmes for managers and specialised programmes for staff in e-commerce as well as short-term training courses on e-commerce for businesses.

The ministry announced Việt Nam was of the three nations with the highest growth rate of the retail market in Southeast together with Indonesia and the Philippines. VNS