Tightening management of cross-border e-commerce

Increasing by 26%, cross-border e-commerce is considered a "lever" to help businesses export online, however, management is still inadequate.

Important export channel

A report by the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy (Ministry of Industry and Trade) shows that Vietnam's e-commerce continues to maintain an impressive growth rate of 18 - 25% per year. In 2024, the size of the e-commerce market will exceed 25 billion USD, an increase of 20% compared to 2023, accounting for about 9% of the total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue nationwide.

The proportion of e-commerce accounts for 2/3 of the value of Vietnam's digital economy. The growth rate of e-commerce and Vietnam's digital economy continues to grow steadily at double digits, ranking among the Top 10 countries with the fastest e-commerce growth rate in the world, creating momentum for digital economic development and leading digital transformation in businesses.

Cross-border e-commerce is growing strongly but difficult to manage. Illustrative photo

Notably, cross-border e-commerce has become an important channel for exporting goods, expanding the consumption market for Vietnamese goods. Data from a report by Amazon Global Selling Vietnam shows that more than 17 million products of Vietnamese enterprises have been exported, an increase of 50% in value and a 40% increase in the number of sales partners. Overall, cross-border e-commerce has grown by 26% compared to the previous year.

Director of the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy Le Hoang Oanh assessed: Cross-border e-commerce brings many benefits to businesses, such as: Expanding export markets, increasing sales rapidly in a short time; quickly grasping customer feedback to promptly improve products according to market needs; solving seasonal problems...

To manage this modern retail channel, over the past year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has continued to promote law enforcement, inspection and handling of issues related to e-commerce. As of 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has received dossiers, consulted and supported 89,802 enterprises, organizations and 27,878 individuals to register accounts, carried out notification procedures for 117,075 e-commerce websites and 9,256 websites providing e-commerce services to carry out registration procedures; registration dossiers of people and enterprises related to e-commerce activities are carried out entirely through the full-process Online Public Service, ensuring quick and effective processing and no negative consequences in the performance of public duties.

Regarding cross-border e-commerce: The Ministry has promptly advised and reported to the Prime Minister to issue an Official Dispatch on continuing to promote state management of e-commerce; researched and proposed the promulgation of a specialized Law on e-commerce to strengthen state management of cross-border e-commerce activities; coordinated with ministries and branches to strengthen monitoring, detection and handling of violations of cross-border e-commerce platforms, etc.

There are many shortcomings

Despite great efforts in monitoring and management, the problem of controlling counterfeit, fake, banned, intellectual property-infringing, and poor-quality goods remains complicated. Although legal documents on e-commerce have provisions on reviewing, controlling, and handling information violations, violations in cyberspace are becoming increasingly sophisticated, requiring state management agencies to have more effective management tools.

Controlling cross-border e-commerce is even more difficult: Although Decree No. 85/2021/ND-CP of the Government has initial regulations on conditions applicable to entities providing cross-border e-commerce services in the Vietnamese market, the regulations are not strong and widespread enough, leading to many cross-border e-commerce platforms entering the Vietnamese market without completing official legal procedures.

Faced with this reality, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy has coordinated with the General Department of Market Management and the General Department of Customs to strengthen supervision, detection, and handling of warehouses and goods gathering points (if any) of unregistered cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Strengthen communication to guide consumers to be cautious when shopping online on cross-border e-commerce platforms in general and platforms such as Temu and Shein in particular. In particular, absolutely do not conduct transactions with platforms that have not been confirmed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to register at the e-commerce management information portal, in order to raise awareness of the risks when shopping on cross-border e-commerce platforms and protect consumer rights.

Experts say that in 2025, digital economy and e-commerce will continue to receive attention, support, and promotion, and will be widely applied in businesses and the community, creating a stronger driving force in promoting exports and consumption of goods in the domestic market, especially agricultural products and food. However, this also poses new requirements in the management of cross-border e-commerce.

In its role, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy said it will continue to research and review the completion of legal policy infrastructure for e-commerce; research and propose the promulgation of specialized laws on e-commerce; strengthen the management and supervision of goods in the online environment, in order to create trust for consumers in online shopping activities, protect traders, healthy business organizations and promote the development of e-commerce.

In addition, decentralization and delegation of power to localities aims to strengthen the management of e-commerce activities; manage transactions between buyers and sellers online; combat and handle acts of trading in counterfeit, fake and poor quality goods in e-commerce; strengthen supervision of e-commerce platforms that carry out promotions that do not comply with the provisions of law.

In order to help authorities better control the flow of imported goods, especially in the context of cross-border e-commerce platforms operating strongly in Vietnam, according to Decision 78/2010/QD-TTg, from February 18, 2025, imported goods with a value of less than 1 million VND when sent via express delivery service will be subject to import tax and value added tax.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/siet-chat-quan-ly-thuong-mai-dien-tu-xuyen-bien-gioi-369185.html