Sending Vietnamese Goods to Global E-commerce System

Trade promotion through e-commerce channels is one of Vietnam's key export promotion measures in the context of strong global integration, especially when many free trade agreements have already been signed. Mr. Vu Ba Phu, General Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, granted an exclusive interview about this issue. Huong Ly reports.

What do you think about e-commerce trends in Vietnam for the time being?

Given the fact that more than 95% of enterprises in Vietnam are small and medium in scale, in addition to traditional trade promotion methods, e-commerce is absolutely essential. Moreover, traditional trade promotion measures such as organizing trade fairs or direct meetings with market partners are expensive and not all businesses can afford these approaches.

In Vietnam, e-commerce, digital commerce and digital economy are growing strongly and likely to boom in the near future. Therefore, export promotion will be directed towards e-commerce and digital environment. This plan is of special priority placed on trade promotion policies adopted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade connected with e-commerce platforms in the world such as Amazon and Alibaba and digital companies like Google and invited them to Vietnam for trade and contact for trade exchange and cooperation in support of Vietnamese enterprises, especially SMEs, to effectively apply e-commerce and digital economy vehicles for export and market expansion.

How will exporters benefit when they join trade promotion programs through e-commerce platforms?

In addition to conventional trade promotion channels such as organizing fairs, exhibitions and direct meetings with partners, sending delegates to introduce products and host trade forums, we have set requirements for cooperation programs with famous e-commerce platforms in the world. Accordingly, SMEs will be instructed and equipped with necessary skills to effectively apply these platforms to introduce their products and brands to the international market.

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency cooperated with Amazon Global Selling to launch an export promotion program through Amazon e-commerce platform. Amazon is a giant global e-commerce platform and a leading e-commerce company in the world. This is considered an initial success. The partnership will help Vietnamese businesses reach more than 300 million customers, including more than 100 million Prime customers in various Amazon markets, as well as millions of wholesale dealers in the United States, Europe and Japan.

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency and Amazon Global Selling agreed to jointly support Vietnamese companies, with priority given to SMEs, to access the world market with Amazon.com; develop their brands in the e-commerce environment of Amazon.com; organize training programs for Vietnamese SMEs on e-commerce for trade and export promotion and global marketing skills on Amazon.com.

What are initial cooperation results with world-leading e-commerce platforms, sir?

The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency agreed to cooperate with Amazon in three years from 2019 to 2021. We picked up 105 Vietnamese enterprises, mainly SMEs, for training, consultation and support. So far, more than 50% of them have successfully registered their websites on Amazon. 14 companies have reached successful deals. During recent sales bonanzas in the US, many Vietnamese companies sold out their goods in Amazon stores. We also set goals and hoped that this program will spread more widely in the Vietnamese business community.

Vietnamese companies and Amazon will set up an ecosystem that includes service providers and technical support consultants. These selected businesses will be guided in procedures, supported in registration stages and assisted to build stores on Amazon by Vietrade experts and partners, and Amazon Global Selling. They are also helped to complete import and export procedures, customs procedures, shipping and US market research. In addition, they are supported to develop products and brands through Amazon's e-commerce system. Normally, they will need 3-5 years to have enough procedures and proficiently use skills sell their products on Amazon. Nevertheless, supported by this program, they will need from only six months to one year to have this done. In addition, we continue to select brands and businesses and introduce them to Vietnam's general store on Amazon.

Could you please reveal export promotion measures on the e-commerce platform in the coming time?

As Vietnam signed many new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency will strive to make the most of trade benefits generated by FTAs. Export promotion will give priority to markets where FTAs bring deepest tariff reductions for Vietnam. The next priority will be traditional markets where we already have a cooperation foundation and good export and Vietnamese goods have certain competitive advantages. Then, we will promote new export markets.

We will also focus on finding potential partners, such as distributors and trade associations for domestic enterprises, especially SMEs. The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency will help them get better market information and establish a smooth information channel between Vietnamese trade agencies and representative agencies in the world with the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, local trade promotion centers and business associations.