How to promote healthy e-commerce market

This policy was stipulated in a recent announcement made by the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

For a foreign-invested economic organisation which registers a new e-commerce service provision website or application, it can be considered necessary to provide several key documents. This includes a copy from the original book or a certified copy or a copy produce together with the original for comparison with the establishment decision (for organisations) and an electronic copy from the original book or certified electronic copy from the original.

Furthermore, these organisations must also provide business registration certificates to traders, business licenses for foreign investors, and foreign-invested economic organisations.

These requirements are not new procedures, but fully comply with the provisions set out in Government Decree No 85 relating to the amendments and supplements to a number of articles of Government Decree No. 52 on e-commerce.

In line with these regulations, e-commerce can be defined as a conditional market access industry for foreign investors. Specifically, foreign traders and organisations that have websites providing e-commerce services in the nation use Vietnamese domain names.

It is therefore stipulated that they have websites which display the language in Vietnamese or have 100,000 transactions from Vietnam annually.

Market access conditions include foreign financiers investing in the business of providing e-commerce services in the nation in the form of establishing economic organisations or investing in capital contribution or share purchase, as well as capital contribution.

Furthermore, foreign investors controlling one or more enterprise in the group of five leading enterprises in the Vietnamese e-commerce service market, according to the list announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, must have opinions on national security assessment by the Ministry of Public Security.

E-commerce platforms are becoming increasingly important in the retail market. However, the problem is that there is a need for seriousness, transparency, and strict management in a bid to ensure the harmony of interests between stakeholders, especially the interests of consumers.

Therefore, according to experts, these requirement can also be considered a necessary move in order to contribute to a healthy e-commerce market which has seen a boom in recent years, especially when this activity has drawn the participation of cross-border traders.