Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - E-commerce in Vietnam is growing,however many individuals and businesses are taking advantage of onlineplatforms to sell poor quality and fake goods, harming customers and causinglost tax revenues.

The statement wasmade by DamThanh The,Chief of the Standing Office of National Steering Committee 389, at a recent conference in Hanoi.

The said authorities hadnot been able to control fraud on such platforms as there was a lack ofregulations over the e-commerce sector. In addition, the legal framework lagged behind thedevelopment of technology and sanctions were not strong enough to deterviolations.

According to datareleased by German market research firm Statista, in 2018, Vietnam's e-commercerevenue reached nearly 2.27 billion USD and was on the list of the sixmost developed e-commerce countries.

Statistics compiledby Nielsen Vietnam and MiniwattsMarketing Group showed that 85 per cent of the Vietnamese population uses theinternet, ranking 13th among the 20 countries with the highest proportion ofinternet users in the world.

Vietnamese consumersspend an average of 7 hours a day online. 90 per cent of the urban populationand 50 per cent of the rural population use smartphones.

According to the Vietnam E-Business Index2019 Report 2018, the growth of e-commerce in the period 2017 - 2019 averagedbetween 25 per cent and 30 per cent per year. If Vietnam maintains thisgrowth, the market in 2025 will rank third in Southeast Asia, followingIndonesia and Thailand.

A representative ofthe General Department of Market Management, under the Ministry of Industry andTrade (MoIT), said e-commerce business activities had seen strong developmentboth in value and volume, attracting many businesses and individuals.

However, the growthof e-commerce also encouraged the trade of banned and counterfeit goods.

Regarding domestice-commerce activities, NguyenThi Minh Huyen,MoIT’s Deputy Director General of Vietnam E-commerce and Digital EconomyAgency, said in order to protect consumers, the MoIT had invited e-commerceexchanges such as Lazada, Tiki, Shopee, Sendo and Adayroi to commit to fightingcounterfeit, fake and smuggled goods.
These brandede-commerce platforms have measures to protect consumers. However, themanagement of individuals and businesses that operate on social networks isextremely difficult.

For cross-bordere-commerce activities, Vietnam has differentlegal documents such as the Law on E-Commerce Transactions, Law on CyberSecurity, Law on the State Bank of Vietnam and Law on Tax Administration.

However, according toNguyen Cong Binh, Deputy DirectorGeneral of Vietnam Customs, thelegal documents governing this activity are not sufficient, leading to laxregulations over the sector.

All import-exportgoods, including those of traditional commerce or e-commerce, are controlled bycustoms authorities. However, in traditional trade, the customs authoritymanages all goods as well as records and documents related to import andexport.

As for e-commerce,transactions are conducted in cyberspace, so customs offices can only managegoods physically at border gates. Paperwork, invoices and documents related togoods are not manageable.

If it is imperativethat all electronic transactions have complete records and invoices duringimport and export, it will hinder the development of the industry. However, ifit is not strictly controlled, it will be very difficult to prevent fraud,especially tax fraud, that causes losses of state budget revenue and adverseimpacts on domestic production and business activities.

Hien suggested that tomanage this activity, it was important to control the origin of goods andclamp down on the manufacture of counterfeit products./.