Opportunity for Vietnamese Firms to Promote Export

Speaking at the training session, Mr Do Kim Lang, Deputy Director of Vietrade, a unit of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that accelerating application and development of e-commerce has long been a concern of Vietrade and the focus has been brought to a new level recently. Initiated in 2007, the first version of BuyVietnam.com.vn was completed in May 2011 by AJC. This is a good e-commerce website for businesses to promote exports and advertise products. He emphasised that BuyVietnam.com.vn will play an important role in boosting import and export capacity of enterprises and linking trade promotion agencies in Vietnam and other ASEAN countries. In the long run, BuyVietnam.com.vn will be developed in a broader scope.

 

In fact, to sustain export growth, apart from trade promotion in traditional markets, the IT application to e-commerce is an important solution and tendency. Currently, in developing countries, the application of e-commerce is considered an effective trade promotion tool in provide information to businesses.

 

Mr Lang said in reality this electronic information website has been introduced in some localities such as Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa and initially received a lot of registrations, but the effectiveness remained low. This training course is expected to attract more enterprises to take part in.

 

Mr Pham Viet Duc, Head of Information Technology & E-commerce Department, Vietrade, said, with the development of information technology and e-commerce, in addition to traditional trade promotion activities like trade fairs and exhibitions, market surveys, trade exchanges and product shows, the application of information technology and e-commerce to trade promotion activities has been a popular choice for many enterprises. This helps them reach customers and partners quickly and easily and build up their corporate images effectively. This option also helps reduce costs in receiving orders and advertising products. Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises should proactively increase, use, and apply IT, Internet and e-commerce to promote trade and look for partners in order to improve their business performance.

 

He stressed that in addition to promoting exports, BuyVietnam.com.vn also aims at promoting development investment for industry and trade. This is a great opportunity for businesses to not only expand exports but also enhance opportunities of investment cooperation with others. Buyvietnam.com.vn is now considered an effective form of trade promotion in the current economic context.

 

Regarding membership registration and administration, Ta Hoang Lan, an official at the External Information Department, Vietrade, said that registered enterprises can display information about corporate profile, product list, contact email and others on BuyVietnam.com.vn website. Required registration information consists of company name, address, type of company, products, etc. Each company is granted an account. Users log in with registered user name. Email address and account information are administered and used by the Board of Moderators for future updates. She also noted that if the registration information is not approved by the Board of Moderators, it will be erased from database. Therefore, companies should copy the entirely filled in information for future editing in the next registration.

 

It is also noted that registered email should not be common emails or free emails. Enterprises also need to have personnel in charge of website information management and information update.