HCMCity (VNS/VNA) - Online trade promotion offers businesses,especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), direct access tointernational customers, boosts their sales, speeds up the marketing process,and saves costs, experts have said.

TheVietnam Trade Promotion Agency has encouraged localities, businesses and tradepromotion organisations to develop online marketing measures during the COVID-19pandemic.

Itwants businesses to adopt trade promotion activities on digital platforms,develop e-commerce activities and increase the use of information technology intheir operations.

Itwill strengthen trade promotion programmes for exports and foster online tradelinks between Vietnamese businesses and import partners.

NguyenHuu Tin, Director of the HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC),said supply chains are disrupted and e-commerce showed it could help SMEsmaintain their operations.

Digitaltransformation could help firms penetrate and expand export markets, and set upa more flexible and efficient export model, he said.

Anumber of Vietnamese firms are now adopting business-to-business andbusiness-to-consumer e-commerce business models, he added.

Globally,cross-border e-commerce is developing rapidly and becoming a major trend intrade.

Underthe national e-commerce development master plan for 2021-2025 and the nationaldigital transformation programme, Vietnam has identified digital transformationas vital to speeding up modernisation of its distribution system, increaseenterprises’ competitiveness, develop the domestic market, and increase exports.

Onlinetrade promotion is considered crucial to helping SMEs enhance trade activitiesand expand export markets amid the pandemic.

ToHoai Nam, standing vice-chairman and general secretary of the VietnamAssociation of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME), said, however, thatVietnamese SMEs have limited resources so have great difficulty adoptingdigitisation in trade promotion and exports.

SoVINASME has called on the Ministry of Industry and Trade to help SMEs export bysetting up a B2B e-commerce channel under the National Trade PromotionProgramme this year.

The programmeaims to help traders and producers advertise their goods in the globalmarketplace.

Theassociation will build a B2B e-commerce site based with GlobalSources, a US e-commerce corporation.

Theprogramme is meant for manufacturers and traders in labour-intensive industriessuch as textiles, footwear, handicrafts, furniture, and plastic goods. 

Theassociation has also undertaken online trade promotion activities instead of sending to Vietnamese delegations toparticipate in international trade fairs and exhibitions.

Ithas implemented a number of programmes to assist SMEs with increasing exportsthrough the internet and doing business on B2B e-commerce sites.

Accordingto the Multilateral Trade Policy Department, trade promotion activities are nowmoving online, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also helpsbusinesses save significant amounts of money.

Accordingto the Vietnam E-Commerce Association, the country's e-commerce marketwill grow by more than 30 percent this year to 15 billion USD and to 52billion USD by 2025./.