Mr. Nguyen Anh Duong, Head of the Board of Macro Policy in CIEM, stated that the legal frame for electronic commerce has been formed since 2005 in the Law on Electronic Transactions 2005, the Law on Commerce 2005, and the Law on Information Technology 2006.
“Basically, we have necessary policies on Internet service management and provision as well as on digital information on the Internet; on domain control; and on consumer right protection in e-commerce. However, there still exists certain weaknesses on competitions in e-commerce or the legal values of digital documents like digital contracts and bills”, said Mr. Duong.
One such example of those weaknesses is the fight between traditional taxis and Uber, Grab, which is still causing damaging effects on both sides. Another story comes from the real estate market where the calculation on commerce expense for both digital and traditional trading methods is not at all clear. The policy to encourage digital currency has not demonstrate its full advantages when the rate of real currency use in the second quarter of 2018 is still the same as that in 2010, accounting for 11.87 percent.
Noticeably, the problem of safety and information security has not met the strict demands of users yet.
According to Ms. Le Thi Ha, Head of the Division of Policy in the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade), the online retail market in Vietnam has had such an impressive development rate of 20 percent per year since 2013. It is predicted that in 2020, this market will earn $10 billion, with the average online shopping value of $350 per year per person.
To foster the growth of e-commerce, it is necessary to adjust the Law on Commerce 2005 by adding some frame policies on e-commerce, analyzing and building new decrees to replace the outdated Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, issuing guidance documents to suit the real needs, and finishing the Decree on punishment for administrative violations related to e-commerce.
