Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Ministry ofIndustry and Trade plans to enhance the application of e-commerce with the aimof narrowing the digital divide, an official said at the Vietnam OnlineBusiness Forum 2019 held in Hanoi on March 26.

Nguyen Huu Tuan, a representative from theministry’s Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency, said that narrowingthe digital divide across the country was important.

Narrowing digital divide remained a significantchallenge to Vietnam, the Vietnam e-Commerce Association (Vecom) said in itsreport about the e-Business Index (EBI) 2019 released at the conference.

The report revealed a huge gap in e-commercedevelopment across the country’s 63 provinces and cities.

Vietnam’s EBI averaged 40.3 points, 2.8 pointshigher than in 2018. EBI is based on infrastructure and human resources,business-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-governmenttransactions.

HCM City took the lead in EBI with 86.8 points,double the country’s average and nearly 60 points higher than Bac Kan, whichwas at the bottom of the list.

Hanoi came second with 84.3 points, followed byHai Phong (59.6 points) and Da Nang (57.5 points).

However, the gap between the top fivelocalities’ average EBI (68.4 points) and the average EBI of the five localitiesat the bottom of the list (29 points) increased to 39.4 points from 36.7 pointsin 2018 and 18 points in 2013.

Vecom said there was a significant difference ine-commerce development between localities and it was widening.

It was easy to understand that e-commerce tendedto develop rapidly in major cities rather than others but it was important for Vietnamto narrow the digital divide, Vecom said.

Other barriers to the development of e-commercewere the lack of consumer trust and limited logistics services, Vecom said.

According to Tuan, besides narrowing the divide,the ministry would also focus on completing an e-commerce legal framework toprotect the rights of consumers, especially on preventing the sale ofcounterfeit and poor-quality products, as well as developing an e-commercetrade promotion programme for the 2021-2025 period.

E-commerce boomed in 2018 with a growth rate ofmore than 30 percent, according to Vecom, rising from 2.2 billion USD revenuein 2013 to 7.7 billion USD.

Lai Viet Anh, deputy director of the Vietname-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency, said that revenue from Vietnam’se-commerce market was predicted to reach 13-15 billion USD in 2020, beating theGovernment’s target of 10 billion USD.

According to Vecom’s report, cross-border trade hadbecome an important channel for exports and it was estimated that around 32 percentof Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises had established business withforeign partners through online channels.

On the same day, the Central Institute for EconomicManagement (CIEM) also organised a workshop about digital trade andopportunities for Vietnam.

CIEM Director Nguyen Dinh Cung said that digitaltrade was expected to create significant value for Vietnam.

A report by AlphaBeta Company showed that digitaltrade could bring economic value worth 953 trillion VND (40.5 billion USD) for Vietnamin 2030, from 81 trillion VND in 2017.

Konstantin Matthies from AlphaBeta said thatpolicymakers should consider the importance of digital trade to the domestic economyin developing economic and trade policies.-VNS/VNA