Enhance export skills training through e-commerce

Vietnam has many regional specialties, but sales are often through consignment companies that buy and then export across the border. Cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) can help direct manufacturers and small manufacturers participate directly in exporting. Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of the Center for E-commerce Development (Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that to improve export capacity through e-commerce, many training activities, equipping skills and knowledge for businesses will continue to be deployed.

Please tell us, in the recent period, how has the export capacity of Vietnamese enterprises through e-commerce changed?

E-commerce in Vietnam has had a fairly high growth rate in recent times. In particular, online retail e-commerce has grown at an increase of about 16 - 30% in the past 4 - 5 years and this is also one of the leading growth rates in the world. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam currently ranks third after Indonesia and Thailand in online retail value through solution platforms.

Cross-border e-commerce is currently an inevitable trend. Many small and micro businesses in Vietnam participate in this playground and have placed orders, bringing sales to businesses, thereby improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese businesses in the world market. .

Vietnam has many regional specialties, but sales are often through consignment companies that collect and then export across the border. Therefore, the people who directly produce those products do not benefit much. Cross-border e-commerce can help direct manufacturers and small manufacturers participate directly in exporting, thus increasing profits for businesses to reinvest and then produce better products, build the company's brand in a more methodical and standard way in the future. Only then can Vietnamese products be accepted by the world and imported more in the future.

Are there any difficulties in the process of training import-export skills through e-commerce, sir?

The current limitation of export via e-commerce is that many small businesses that produce and trade products have not yet built their brands systematically. In many localities, they have the same type of product but have not yet built a national product, but mainly built a small, retail, and local brand such as tea products. Currently, many localities are building brands such as: Thai Nguyen tea, Yen Bai tea, and Ha Giang tea. Therefore, it is very difficult to build a common brand identity for the product.

In the future, state management units and industry associations need to coordinate with each other to build brands for each type of product to become a national brand. From there, it helps to penetrate the world market more systematically and professionally, sold products have higher prices, and export turnover is larger.

Recently, cooperative activities to train export via e-commerce have been implemented between state management agencies and e-commerce platforms, such as with Amazon Global Selling. Please tell us the results of this training activity and orientation in the future?

E-commerce Development Center - representing the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, is the unit that directly implements the Cooperation Program between the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy and Amazon Global Selling with the Initiative "Cross-border e-commerce: A breakthrough era." ” aims to support Vietnamese businesses in their journey to reach the global market by capturing knowledge about cross-border e-commerce, promoting the sales process with Amazon and improving businesses' capacity to expand global business.

In the past 2 years, the E-commerce Development Center and Amazon Global Selling Vietnam have successfully organized 13 face-to-face training courses and 2 online training courses for more than 2,000 businesses and sellers nationwide. Through training and connection activities, hundreds of businesses have been transforming and applying acquired knowledge and skills to gradually expand cross-border export markets through e-commerce.

To enhance the effectiveness of training on export knowledge and skills through e-commerce, the E-commerce Development Center (Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy, Amazon Global Selling and industry associations launched the Program: "Strengthening links between e-commerce and digital economy"; connecting industries, promoting quintessential Vietnamese products to conquer the global market". This program is a strengthening activity for phase 2 of the "Cross-border e-commerce: Breakthrough era" initiative implemented from now until 2026. In this second phase, we aim to select 2,000 typical businesses from industry associations to provide in-depth support, helping businesses successfully participate in online export.

Source: Customs News