On March 6, the Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) in collaboration with Alibaba.com organized the “Annual International Conference on B2B Online Export and Honoring 100 Outstanding Enterprises participating in the Vietnam Pavilion on the Alibaba.com e-commerce platform.”
The conference aims to support Vietnamese businesses in improving their IT application capabilities, expanding opportunities for promoting exports through digital platforms, and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese businesses in the digital transition period.
Mr. Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Agency, Ministry of Industry and Trade, stated that promotion work, including supporting businesses in diversifying market development channels, is a top priority in the current situation.
In fact, it has been noted that through strong digital transformations in trade promotion, Vietnamese export businesses have saved costs, shortened distances and time, increased transaction speed and order processing, expanded market access, and potential customers, thereby making positive contributions to the impressive export achievements of the whole country.
According to Mr. Phu, Alibaba.com is one of the global reputable e-commerce platforms with over 260 million buyers in 190 countries and regions. This is a potential market for Vietnamese businesses to expand their business scale and sell to customers worldwide.
In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has successfully coordinated with Alibaba.com to organize many large conferences and training courses on digital business skills at localities.
At the conference, Mr. Mike Zhang, Alibaba.com’s Country Director in Vietnam, shared that Vietnam is a market with many great opportunities and potentials in the Southeast Asia region. Therefore, in 2023, Alibaba increased its investment in Vietnam and continuously improved its products and services.
In particular, it supports local businesses in gaining the trust of global buyers through brand verification. Especially, for rural businesses who wish to have localized services, Alibaba established a representative office in Binh Duong in 2023.
Many local businesses are trading on the e-commerce platform for the first time, so they are still hesitant with large transactions. Alibaba has launched services to ensure commercial security and enhance safety between buyers and sellers on the e-commerce platform. This has created new value for small and medium-sized local businesses. Furthermore, with the era of artificial intelligence, Alibaba uses the most advanced tools to assist more local businesses.
The prospects of Vietnam’s market are very optimistic. Therefore, Mr. Mike Zhang stated that in 2024, Alibaba will continue to strengthen its investment in Vietnam. Specifically, at the end of March 2024, Alibaba will open 2 new representative offices in Dong Nai and Long An, as well as plan to open more branches to localize its services and be closer to customers.
Ms. Berry Ma, Southeast Asia Marketing Director of Alibaba.com, added that instead of businesses having to directly open stores in host countries, Alibaba.com provides a global sales solution on the e-commerce platform for businesses.
Alibaba.com covers over 200 countries and regions, with over 47 million B2B buyers active, 18 languages on the website, over 200 million products listed, spanning across 40 key industries… Notably, the number of buyers placing large orders on Alibaba.com has been increasing in recent years.
To take advantage of potential e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba.com, Ms. Berry Ma believes that sellers need to understand consumer behavior through brand, brand credibility, convenience, and suitable services. Brands need to stand out in the online environment. Alibaba.com’s measurement shows that over 80% of users want to buy new products, and 62% want to find new suppliers to avoid risks of relying on a few suppliers.
Furthermore, sellers also want convenient transactions and seek new opportunities. Sellers are not only interested in the number of buyers but also interested in establishing long-term, stable relationships for operation and business with high-value orders.
Within the framework of the conference, Alibaba.com announced the list of 100 outstanding enterprises participating in the Vietnam Pavilion on the Alibaba.com e-commerce platform.
The selection process of the 100 enterprises took place from November 28, 2023, to January 15, 2024, with the aim of finding the best outstanding enterprises of Vietnam based on 14 evaluation criteria, including product quality, brand reputation, e-commerce expertise, export potential, business scale, geographical distribution, and many other factors.
Vietnamese suppliers chosen for this program will not only benefit from the online display capability through the Vietnam Pavilion on Alibaba.com but also receive technical support, consulting, training, and other support in building and enhancing their business profiles on Alibaba.com.
The knowledge sharing scope includes various aspects of international trade, from e-commerce activities to international transport, warehousing, and commercial law.
