Bac Giang (VNA)𒁏 – The northern province of Bac Giang will promote e-commerce development in the locality, focusing on organising training and workshops for businesses, cooperatives, and individuals to improve their capacity to utilise e-commerce applications.

These efforts also aim to increase business participation in e-commerce, and raise consumer awareness and the ability to respond to illegal activity on e-commerce platforms. In addition, the local authorities will prioritise the improvement and development of infrastructure and solutions to support electronic transactions with integrated payment solutions for commerce and public services, concentrating on expanding mobile payment options, e-wallets, QR codes, NFC, and POS systems.

Attention will be also paid to a programme to support digital transformation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), encouraging the use of digital technologies to improve business and production models, and identifying priority sectors for developing new technological applications in production and business. Additionally, the province is also working on improving delivery and logistics infrastructure to support e-commerce, integrating new technologies into logistics activities. Efforts are being made to boost e-commerce applications that assist key export sectors, expand domestic product distribution, and apply new technologies in e-commerce. The improved support of the digital transformation process of businesses is also on the table, to be accomplished by encouraging businesses and cooperatives to join major domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms. Since 2021, e-commerce has shown positive growth, with an annual average increase of 17.6%. Most specialty products of Bac Giang are now available on e-commerce and social network platforms. The locality has also made progress in applying digital transformation to build brands, promote trade, and increase the market reach of its key products and specialties. In the first half of 2024, the provincial Department of Planning and Investment continued to support businesses to participate in the Small and Medium Enterprises Support Programme for Digital Transformation (SMEdx), which aims to raise business awareness of digital transformation. The department is also planning to assist the registration and establishment of new digital technology enterprises. The department assisted the establishment of 138 new digital technology businesses and organised 10 training sessions on start-ups, business management, digital transformation for nearly 700 participants. Hands-on training programmes were also arranged in manufacturing and processing companies in the districts of Son Dong, Luc Ngan, and Lang Giang, and Bac Giang city. It coordinated with the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to organise three conferences to raise awareness of e-commerce for 80 businesses, cooperatives, and households producing OCOP products and other specialty items. The department also collaborated with the MoIT's Trade Promotion Agency and the social media platform TikTok to conduct a course on business skills on digital platforms and brand development and image building for 50 businesses and cooperatives operating in agriculture, food, textiles, footwear, handicrafts, and wood products. In the first six months of 2024, the proportion of e-commerce in the total retail sales in Bac Giang rose to over 25%, including retail sales on Shopee, Sendo, Lazada, TiKi, TikTok Shop, other e-commerce platforms, websites, social networks, Transpost, Travel, Media, and other online platforms. Since 2021, the Bac Giang police, in collaboration with relevant authorities, has detected, inspected, and handled 220 cases of smuggling and counterfeit goods trading on social media platforms. Administrative fines totaling approximately 1.8 billion VND (71,146 USD) were imposed, and 2.9 billion VND was contributed to the state budget./.