In order to develop a digital economy, Vietnam needs to create anecosystem and raise awareness among non-internet companies, whileimproving the skills among employees.

It also should create regulations that are more clear and increasingly transparent.

JohnUre, Director of consulting and research firm TRPC made therecommendation at a Hanoi recent conference entitled Powering theDigital Economy in Vietnam.

"Vietnam's internet economy has beengrowing based upon its infrastructure, especially the use ofsmartphones. It is currently making the transition to a digital economy.The digital economy is very weak in Vietnam, but today there areexamples of companies making good progress. They are paving the way tothe future," Ure said.

In three months, TRPC conducted a studyon current situations and the potential of doing businesses on theinternet in five Asian countries, including Indonesia, India, theRepublic of Korea and Japan. In Vietnam, it performed research onnganluong.vn, an online payment platform from Peacesoft SolutionsCorporation and GiapSchool, the first massive open online course (MOOC)platform in Vietnam, which was founded by Dr Giap Van Duong.

Thestatistics in the report indicate the ongoing growth of the twoplatforms and their potentials. Based on the results, the companyrecommended Vietnamese authorities work with government agencies toensure transparency and develop regulations on e-commerce that are moreclear. It also suggested Vietnam improve close partnerships betweenuniversities, research institutions and industries.

"Comparedwith Indonesia, Vietnam has a stronger infrastructure, especially in theuse of smartphones, though they have been seeing growing in bothcountries. This is also true with India. Vietnam is more compact, makingit easier for people to access the internet, while India and Indonesiaare very large countries," Ure said.

"One similarity among thethree countries are their rules and regulations. Sometimes they are notas clear as they should be. This puts investment at risk because peopledon't like uncertainty."

Attending to the conference, PeacesoftDeputy General Director Nguyen Huu Tuat highlighted online car-sharingservice Uber and Airbnb, which allows travelers to rent rooms,apartments or houses, as examples of the development of the worldwidedigital economy.

He further said that internet-based e-commerceonly accounted for a small share of revenues in Vietnam, whilebusinesses needed to become increasingly digitised. He also said thatPeacesoft had digitised its e-commerce services, from moving productsinto warehouses to payment and shipping.

GiapSchool founder andprimary lecturer Giap Van Duong said that the rise of the digitaleconomy was an inevitable trend. His model had been carried out in manycountries and online courses had seen much support from professors andgrowing participation by students.

However, Duong admitted thatthe implementation of the model in Vietnam faced many difficulties, suchas teacher shortages. "There are only a small number of talents inVietnam who have excellent e-teaching methods," he said.

Theconference is one of activities that are part of the "Support programmefor businesses and handicraft villages to apply e-commerce to boostsales and exports" project carried out by the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI).-VNA