Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Online import and export activitiesof small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are expected to develop furtherdue to the low number of them currently embracing e-commerce, according toexperts.

The Vietnam e-business index report showed that 32 percentof Vietnam's SMEs have established businesses with foreign partners throughonline channels.

Joining B2B (Business to Business) e-commerce platforms willhelp export enterprises directly approach customers, thereby expandingopportunities to access the global market and reducing costs relating totraditional trade promotion such as fairs and exhibitions, and open offices intarget markets. Meanwhile, businesses could deal with customers through onlinechannels or e-commerce websites.

According to a representative from the E-commerceDevelopment Centre under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)'s VietnamE-commerce and Information Technology Agency (Vecita), Vietnamese enterpriseshave used online trading floors to find foreign partners and customers.

In fact, for traditional trading channels, besidescumbersome procedures, many businesses see huge expenditure when findingforeign partners or implementing trade promotion programmes.

Therefore, the online import and export channel is a greatopportunity to reduce costs and time for businesses, especially SMEs lookingfor business partners, doing trade promotion, marketing products andimplementing transactions and payments, according to the representative.

However, according to experts, the local enterprises,especially SMEs in Vietnam, still had difficulty accessing online tradingactivities because about 66 percent of SMEs are of a tiny scale.

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam E-commerceAssociation, said the enterprises still had limitations in information and knowledgeabout e-commerce, especially cross-border e-commerce, leading to difficultiesand inefficiencies in joining online export activities.

Sharing reasons on not really popularising the onlineexport-import channel, Dung said that enterprises did not have enough skills toconfidently sell their products online. The association had worked with manyproviders and consulting companies to support businesses in accessing websitesto export products.

The association hoped businesses would have more experiencein online trading activities to gain new customers, Dung said.

To support businesses applying e-commerce for import-exportactivities, the Vietnam Export Support Alliance had been established to seeksupport service packages to find customers and improve competitiveness in someneighbouring markets for local businesses.

Dung said cross-border e-commerce was becoming an importantchannel for businesses in export, he said that Vecom would strengthen promotionand training activities to make products from traditional craft villagesavailable online.

In 2019, the MoIT plans to organise programmes to supportbusinesses to enhance export capacity in online retailing and provide them withinformation on export opportunities.

Besides, the ministry will guide enterprises to improvetheir products’ designs and complete administrative procedures for export.

According to the ministry’s Vietnam E-commerce and DigitalEconomy Agency, Vietnam’s e-commerce has had strong growth with the highest rateof 30 percent in 2018 rising to 7.8 billion USD revenue from 4 billion USD in2015.

If the growth rate of 2019 and 2020 continues to be at 30 percenteach year, the revenue by 2020 will reach 13 billion USD.-VNS/VNA