2005-2006 A Milestone of Vietnamese Ecommerce

The first Vietnam E-Business Forum (Vebiz 2007) is set to open in Hanoi from January 17-18, 2007 by the Ecommerce Department (under the Ministry of Trade) and IDG Vietnam. Prior to this event, the VIB Forum had an interview with Mr Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Ecommerce Department under the Ministry of Trade.

What is level of Vietnamese ecommerce?
Prior to 2005, the ecommerce was developed spontaneously, or in other words, it was every for himself. Businesses understanding the importance of IT have invested in ecommerce. Until 2005-2006, the Government issued a series of policies and legal framework to regulate the ecommerce activities. The typical documents are the Master Plan for the Ecommerce Development in the 2006-2010 period and the Electronic Transaction. Besides, the Commercial Law and Civil Code also have contents mentioning ecommerce applications. Until now, the ecommerce of Vietnam develops quite systematically. The number of enterprises registering for ecommerce soars continually. State management units have also begun providing online tools to assist enterprises to apply ecommerce. In addition, the propaganda for ecommerce application is also on the right track.

Does the Ministry of Trade also have measures to help businesses to apply ecommerce? And, what should businesses do to avoid risks of ecommerce?
To develop the ecommerce application, the Ministry of Trade has operated the Vietnam Ecommerce Portal (ECVN) in an effort to help businesses to get familiar with the B2B (business-to-business) e-transaction. As for the garment and textile industry, apart from the electronic granting of visa for export to US (ELVIS), the Ministry of Trade also provides the online search engines for garment and textile enterprises to look up visa information, helping them take the initiative in business.

Ecommerce is exposed to threats and attacks on the internet. In addition, the trade frauds and unhealthy competitions are frequent in ecommerce. To restrain these threats, the state management organs must complete a legal framework to deal with the risks. Then, the education and support programmes are also crucial. This not only helps enterprises to raise awareness of the ecommerce but also facilitates the access of enterprises to this mode of business.

Can you give your opinions about the organisation of the first e-business forum in Vietnam?
Vietnam has joined the WTO and businesses need to know that ecommerce is a vital tool to sharpen the corporate competitiveness. The clearly definition of policies, measures and conditions as well as the finding of suitable modes of ecommerce are more crucial than ever. The first e-business forum will bring in awareness and concern of ecommerce to businesses and consumers.

This forum is, first of all, the playing field for the domestic businesses. They gather to share lessons and experience related to ecommerce services and applications. We will invite some big foreign firms, which have rich experience in ecommerce, in a hope that they will provide some experience to domestic companies.

• Reported by Nguyen Thoa