The Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City has said it will join hands with cross-border e-commerce platforms to support local exporters in shipping products to the world on a larger scale and in a more professional way.

This is among the solutions that the city will adopt this year to help Vietnamese enterprises overcome difficulties and foster industrial production, trade, and green export.

Enhancing business via online and digital channels will help exporting enterprises reduce costs and access customers faster, said Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

The department has worked with many e-commerce platforms and service providers to come up with support solutions, Phuong noted.

Enterprises also need to take the initiative in cooperating with partners to better meet the requirements in importing markets.

Huynh Kim Tuoc, co-chairman of the Digital Economy and Technology Committee under the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, said the committee will cooperate with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade in organizing training courses on e-commerce and providing specific consultancy to help enterprises create products meeting international standards.

It also wants to change enterprises’ viewpoint that online exports are only suitable for small and micro firms. In reality, large enterprises can also export their products online.

Not only fashion and consumer goods but also farm produce can be effectively exported online, Tuoc added.

Vietnam was among the top five markets with the highest growth in online exports last year and the potential for online exports is still ample.

Vietnam has advantages in producing various agricultural products but it has yet to effectively attract international buyers, said Nguyen Dinh Tung, vice-chairman of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association.

“As soon as Vietnam’s ST25 was named the best rice variety in the world, we started exporting the rice to the U.S. but the journey has been tough," Tung shared.

“Without investment and endurance, it would be hard to stand firm in foreign markets.”

Besides quality, Vietnam should develop brands for agricultural product exports, he added.

The country exported US$20.26 billion worth of agro-forestry-fishery products in the first five months of this year, down 11.1 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

China, the U.S., and Japan were the largest importing markets for these products from Vietnam with a respective proportion of 20.4, 19.8, and 7.8 percent.

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