Vo TanThanh, director of the chamber's Ho Chi Minh City branch, saide-commerce is considered the best option for import-export companies interms of time and pricing power.
Thanh spoke at an Open Sesame event held on Friday.
At the event organised by the world's largest online B2B marketplacefor global trade Alibaba.com and OSB Joint Stock Co, Thanh saide-commerce will become indispensable in the near future for businesses,allowing them to access customers more easily.
Vietnamesesmall- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have paid more attention tointernational trading activities, and increase exports instead of onlyfocusing on domestic markets.
Vietnam has a goodfoundation for e-commerce to develop. The country has currently morethan 30 million internet users, accounting for 35 percent of thepopulation.
Moreover, Vietnam is one of the topcountries in Asia that is developing rapid internet speed forinformation technology infrastructure.
According to theglobal e-commerce platform Alibaba.com , Vietnam is viewed as acountry with great potential, having 210,000 registered members on itsplatform as of the first quarter of this year.
Accordingto the Ministry of Industry and Trade, total export turnover for thefirst six months of the year reached 53.1 billion USD.
With rapid development of online trading in Vietnam , the target is expected to be met.
Thanh said that Business-2-Business (B2B) e-commerce floors hveattracted many businesses from around the world, including those fromVietnam .
Timothy Leung, deputy chairman of Alibaba.comGroup's global business and development division, said that "by usinge-commerce, enterprises are able to easily access new markets andcustomers. Online trading helps reduce transaction times and costs".
There are 3,600-4,000 Vietnamese businesses per month that register onAlibaba.com. Vietnamese items that top the list for foreign viewers ofthe site are related to agriculture, food and beverage, and constructionand property.
The US, China and India are among the buyers who have great demands to seek Vietnamese suppliers.
This means that Vietnamese businesses will be able to gain a leg-up on e-commerce competition.
Thanh said that e-commerce has opened up opportunities for businessesto contact partners around the world, and make it easier to seek newclients as international consumers tend to search for new supplies ofgoods.
He said that using e-commerce, businesses should beresponsible and reliable in their trading, and answer buyers' inquiriesas quickly as possible.
Alibaba Group in collaborationwith OSB Joint Stock Co and its partner VCCI have launched a project tohelp Vietnamese businesses intensify exports via e-commerce conductednationwide from July to December.
The project is expectedto contribute to export growth of Vietnam in the remaining sixmonths and promote e-commerce development among the Vietnamese businesscommunity.
The project targets supporting 500-600 localexporters with total sponsor value of 21 billion VND (1 million USD). Itwill give priority to exporters operating in key sectors such asagriculture, food, furniture, construction materials, minerals,chemicals, textiles and garments.
The exporters will havean opportunity to join the world's largest online B2B marketplace, with45 percent discount on member registration fee for a Gold Supplier onAlibaba.com.
They also will receive free training on e-commerce, and be able to meet large exporters to share experiences.-VNA