Enhancing the capacity of state management officials to support the development of "E-commerce Villages" in Bac Ninh province

The conference was attended by Mr. Nguyen The Thi, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Ninh province; Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan, Director of the Center for E-commerce Development (eComDX), Department of E-commerce, Ministry of Industry and Trade; Ms. Quach Ai Quyen, in charge of TikTok's Corporate Social Responsibility projects in Vietnam; and a large number of officials and delegates representing departments, agencies, and the People's Committees of communes and wards in Bac Ninh province.

In his opening remarks at the conference, Mr. Nguyen The Thi, Deputy Director of the Bac Ninh Department of Industry and Trade, stated that in recent times, Bac Ninh province has proactively implemented a comprehensive range of solutions to support businesses and cooperatives in applying technology, while simultaneously strengthening propaganda, controlling counterfeit goods, protecting consumer rights, and managing livestreaming activities and KOL/KOC networks. As a result, according to VECOM's report on the e-commerce index for the first six months of 2026, Bac Ninh achieved 17.9 points, rising to fourth place nationwide (after Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang).

Mr. Nguyen The Thi, Deputy Director of the Bac Ninh Department of Industry and Trade, delivered the opening remarks at the conference.

Mr. Thi emphasized that the conference took place at a particularly significant time as Bac Ninh province was preparing to officially transform into a centrally-governed city. This major turning point requires the state management apparatus to be in a higher and more solid position. To meet this urgent requirement, the training program focused on an overview of e-commerce globally and domestically, e-commerce trends; disseminating and implementing the Law on E-commerce No. 122/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 248/2026/ND-CP; and disseminating Criterion 7.3 in the National Criteria Set for New Rural Development giai đoạn 2026-2030 on the effective implementation of e-commerce activities at the commune level.

Stay updated on the market landscape and identify new shifts.

To further clarify market practices, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan, Director of the E-commerce Development Center (eComDX) under the Department of E-commerce, provided an update on the overall picture and the latest trends in Vietnamese e-commerce, thereby helping managers better identify the changes taking place and the requirements in management work.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan, Director of the E-commerce Development Center (eComDX), shared this at the conference.

According to shared information, the Vietnamese B2C e-commerce market is estimated to reach approximately US$31 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of around 25%. Mr. Tuan shared three key highlights of the 2025 e-commerce landscape: 1) Market growth and breakthroughs in scale; 2) Fierce competition for market share among platforms, especially Shopee and TikTok Shop; 3) The driving force behind this competition is the Social Commerce model and technology combined with algorithms.

Mr. Tuan shared that in the first six months of 2026, sales across the four platforms continued to increase sharply, reaching over 291,600 billion VND, a more than 44% increase compared to the same period. Notably, the Shop Mall group, although accounting for only about 2.79% of the total number of stores, contributed 34.2% of the sales, showing that the market is increasingly prioritizing quality, reputation, and operational capacity rather than just expanding the number of sellers.

Furthermore, with the strong trend of seamless online and offline experiences, sellers need to combine the development of their own websites and applications with selling on social media channels such as TikTok, Facebook, and Zalo to expand their customer reach.

Disseminate the new legal framework and enhance management and enforcement capacity.

In the context of rapidly developing e-commerce, timely updating of new regulations is a crucial requirement for local management. At the program, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan disseminated the core contents of the E-commerce Law No. 122/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 248/2026/ND-CP, both effective from July 1, 2026.

The content focuses on regulations that management officials need to directly grasp in practice, such as the scope of regulation, applicable subjects, and new points of the legal framework on e-commerce; responsibilities of entities in the ecosystem; management of e-commerce platforms, social networks with e-commerce activities, and integrated platforms; e-commerce with foreign elements; electronic authentication of sellers; consumer protection; as well as the mechanism for coordinating the handling of violations in the digital environment. This helps officials in Bac Ninh correctly identify emerging issues and be more proactive in organizing and enforcing the law at the local level.

Guidelines for effectively implementing e-commerce activities at the commune level.

The highlight of the program is the dissemination of Criterion 7.3 in the National Criteria Set for New Rural Communes in the 2026-2030 period, regarding the effective implementation of e-commerce activities at the commune level.

Assessing the local situation, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan stated that Bac Ninh is currently possessing many favorable conditions in production, industry, and services to promote the application of e-commerce and accelerate digital transformation.

In this context, the implementation of Criterion 7.3 is not limited to the task of building new rural areas, but more importantly, it aims to gradually form an e-commerce ecosystem that closely connects the government, businesses, cooperatives, and the people. 

The effective implementation of e-commerce activities in communes is based on three main pillars: 1) Digital capacity and skills; 2) Building a local community ecosystem; and 3) The level of participation in e-commerce activities.  

To ensure a practical assessment, localities need to focus on collecting, compiling, and comparing data from multiple sources. These sources, which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of e-commerce revenue, may include technology platforms, administrative reviews/assessment surveys at the commune level, data from postal and delivery companies, and local tax management data.

Bringing e-commerce closer to the people.

One of the key points emphasized by Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan was the approach to supporting businesses at the grassroots level. With the motto "GoRight – Understand correctly, do correctly," the implementation of Criterion 7.3 needs to be linked to practical guidance, tailored to the technological accessibility of each target group.

For businesses, cooperatives, household businesses, and individual entrepreneurs, localities can focus on guiding practical skills such as using digital platforms to introduce and distribute products; building online stores; creating product introduction content; livestreaming; and applying digital tools in promotion and customer care.

For local products, especially agricultural products, OCOP products, and specialty products, bringing them to the digital environment needs to be accompanied by standardization of information, images, packaging, traceability, and order processing procedures, thereby improving consumer accessibility.

Furthermore, the formation of community-based e-commerce support groups has been identified as a crucial solution. These groups can leverage the roles of the Youth Union, Women's Union, and other local organizations to assist people with specific tasks such as product photography, content creation, online store operation, order processing, and secure transactions in the digital environment. To realize this direction, eComDX and the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Center (SYS Vietnam) will continue to collaborate with the Bac Ninh Provincial Department of Industry and Trade and local communes and wards to strengthen the pioneering role of the Youth Union through the Youth Green Station model, Youth MegaLive sessions, and practical training courses on building channels and livestreaming sales. Beyond theoretical training, this collaboration directly brings tech-savvy young people to each locality to provide hands-on guidance, transforming each Green Station into a digital hub: from standardizing packaging processes and traceability to connecting local agricultural products and OCOP products to major e-commerce platforms. 

For businesses and cooperatives with capacity and experience, localities can leverage the role of these entities as key players and driving forces in connecting, supporting, and expanding markets for products from small-scale producers.

Besides business skills, Mr. Tuan also emphasized the importance of raising public awareness about information security and digital transactions, helping people identify online scams, protect their accounts, and verify information before conducting transactions.

Local officials need to improve their data-driven management capabilities. 

For Criterion 7.3 to be effectively implemented, the role of management staff at the commune and ward levels is crucial. According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Tuan, grassroots officials need to gradually improve their capacity in areas including managing and supervising e-commerce activities; updating and enforcing new legal regulations; collecting and processing data; and protecting consumer rights.

In particular, officials need to understand the methods for collecting and aggregating e-commerce data in their area. According to eComDX guidelines, commune-level authorities can coordinate with postal and delivery services to collect data on outgoing and incoming orders and COD (Cash on Delivery) values; and simultaneously conduct on-site sample surveys to determine the percentage of online revenue for service groups such as accommodation and food.

Based on this, localities can synthesize, calculate, and compare data with tax management sources to gradually build a local e-commerce database, serving the purposes of monitoring, evaluating, and policy planning.

Representatives from eComDX also guided the local authorities in implementing the plan in five steps: preparing and establishing an inter-agency working group; collecting foundational and administrative data; organizing sample surveys at the grassroots level; aggregating and extrapolating data; and finally, cross-checking, verifying, and building a local e-commerce database. This approach shifts the evaluation from focusing on individual figures to monitoring the formation and operation of the e-commerce ecosystem in the area.

Mr. Vu Quy, Head of the Import-Export and E-commerce Management Department of the Bac Ninh Department of Industry and Trade, shared his views at the conference.

At the conference, delegates actively participated in discussions, enthusiastically asked questions, and proactively shared many practical situations that needed to be resolved during the implementation of work at the local level. The atmosphere of the conference was extremely lively and open, with multi-directional interaction and exchange between delegates and speakers.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thi, Deputy Head of the Bac Ninh Market Management Department, participated in the exchange and discussion at the conference.

In addition, Ms. Quach Ai Quyen, in charge of TikTok's Corporate Social Responsibility projects in Vietnam, also presented the program to support the implementation of the "E-commerce Village" model initiated by TikTok and successfully implemented in many localities such as Phuong Duc Commune - Hanoi, Binh Lu Commune - Lai Chau, etc., and suggested steps for Bac Ninh to cooperate in supporting these communes to implement this model.

In particular, Mr. Vu Quy, Head of the Import-Export and E-commerce Management Department (Bac Ninh Department of Industry and Trade), and Mr. Nguyen Van Thi, Deputy Head of the Bac Ninh Market Management Department, participated in the conference and directly contributed to discussions, providing specific answers to professional questions and clarifying many important aspects of e-commerce management and inspection. These practical insights not only helped solve problems arising from practice but also provided motivation and enhanced the capacity of staff, contributing to better preparation for the new development of e-commerce in the province.

Ms. Quách Ái Quyên, in charge of TikTok's Corporate Social Responsibility projects in Vietnam.

Through updating new regulations and providing close support from the commune level, Bac Ninh is proactively improving the effectiveness of state management to meet the requirements of the new development era. This is an important prerequisite for building a safe e-commerce environment and creating a genuine impetus for the development of the digital economy in the locality.