Vinh Long breaks through to become a destination for digital commerce in the Mekong Delta region

Vinh Long province is focusing on developing green, sustainable e-commerce, associated with comprehensive digital transformation, towards the goal of "Vinh Long - the destination of digital commerce in the Mekong Delta region."

Exploiting the "green gold mine"

According to the Department of Industry and Trade of Vinh Long province, e-commerce transactions of enterprises and production and business establishments in the province are actively contributing to the local trade and service results.

E-commerce retail sales currently account for about 15% of the total retail sales of goods in the province. Currently, 70% of small and medium enterprises in the province have e-commerce activities, 60% use electronic invoices and 75% have bank accounts for electronic payments. The rate of people shopping online reaches 68% of the adult population.

In addition, Vinh Long has also established OCOP booths and provincial e-commerce trading floors, connecting with provinces in the region, promoting more than 900 typical products, contributing to increasing online export value by about 12%/year.

In particular, the province has built a database of industry and trade enterprises linked to the platform “trade.vinhlong.gov.vn,” including 390 enterprises and cooperatives with 1,953 products, of which 100% are OCOP products.

Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Vinh Long province Tran Quoc Tuan said that the province's e-commerce activities have changed, many agricultural products and specialties such as oranges, grapefruit, coconuts, sweet potatoes, ceramics, handicrafts... have been present on major e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, TikTok Shop, Sendo...

The program “Vinh Long Agricultural Products Development Week - Taking advantage of infrastructure, raising the level of OCOP” alone, carried out at the end of August, consumed more than 185 tons of agricultural products in just 7 days.

This is a living testament to the power of e-commerce when it is well organized, creative and effectively connected.

Livestream sales session of OCOP product owners in Vinh Long province. (Photo: VOV)

Vinh Long province currently has strengths in fruit trees, especially coconuts, vegetables and commercial sweet potatoes, and also possesses advantages in aquaculture. These advantages create the premise for the development of a comprehensive agricultural value chain from raw material areas to processing and consumption. Vinh Long is also the province with the largest coconut growing area in the country, accounting for about 50% of the total coconut growing area in the country. The Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Vinh Long province shared that many products of Vinh Long are truly "sweet fruits" of great value, but are not yet known. If good products are not "on the market" or digitized, their value will remain in the fields, ponds, and cannot reach the larger market.

Therefore, with more than 1,000 OCOP products, hundreds of agricultural products, handicrafts, processed foods... if properly utilized, this will be a "green gold mine" to develop cross-border e-commerce, bringing Vinh Long goods to the world through international platforms.

Improve competitiveness

Vinh Long province currently has favorable foundations for e-commerce development such as technology infrastructure, payment solutions, logistics, e-market management, and digital human resource training models.

However, the three biggest bottlenecks that need to be resolved for the e-commerce sector of Vinh Long province to make a breakthrough are: Unfavorable logistics infrastructure; digital human resources are still lacking and weak; and the online management capacity of many businesses is still limited.

According to Mr. Le Van Bay, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vinh Long branch, the current difficulty in developing e-commerce in the province is that the habit of using cash is still common among the majority of people and small traders.

The level of technology and ability to use smartphones of the people, especially the elderly in rural areas, is still limited. Therefore, Vinh Long province needs to prioritize the development of telecommunications infrastructure, broadband Internet and support the provision of facilities at public places in rural areas.

At the same time, the Department of Industry and Trade acts as a bridge, supporting e-commerce platforms and Vinh Long specialty supply chains to integrate with the bank's payment system.

Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Vinh Long province Tran Quoc Tuan said that at the workshop "Developing e-commerce - Promoting investment, supporting local enterprises" recently organized by the Department of Industry and Trade, experts and enterprises discussed and proposed 4 important orientations to turn Vinh Long into a leading e-commerce center of the Mekong Delta region in the coming time.

Specifically, Vinh Long needs to develop the province's e-commerce ecosystem, not only with a trading floor, but also with logistics, digital payments, consulting services, human resource training and communications.

The province promotes e-commerce of agricultural products, OCOP products and local specialty goods, helping farmers and small businesses to "sell by phone, export with a click."

In addition, the province is gradually building and forming an e-commerce and logistics center in the Mekong Delta in Vinh Long, connecting localities, sharing infrastructure, reducing transportation costs and increasing business competitiveness.

In particular, the province needs to strengthen training and transfer of digital skills, considering this the foundation for every business to be able to "confidently enter the digital world."

Vinh Long province identifies e-commerce as an inevitable path to bring Vinh Long products, services and brands deeper into the digital economy, bringing the province's products to consumers across the country and even around the world.

This is the key solution to expand the market, increase product value and support local businesses to integrate.

However, to effectively exploit this potential, there needs to be close coordination between the State, businesses and consumers, as well as increased investment in digital infrastructure, improved governance capacity and development of high-quality human resources in this field.

According to the orientation of the People's Committee of Vinh Long province, in the period of 2026-2030, the province aims to strive to be among the leading localities in the Mekong Delta region in terms of e-commerce development speed.

In the next 5 years, the province strives to have 70% of the adult population participating in online shopping; e-commerce retail sales increase by 20-30%/year, accounting for 20% of total retail sales of goods in the province.

The rate of enterprises applying e-commerce strives to reach over 70% and 100% of transactions on e-commerce platforms have electronic invoices issued.

The rate of non-cash payments in e-commerce activities reaches 80% and about 60% of small and medium enterprises conduct business activities on e-commerce platforms.

Along with solutions on improving institutions and policies, developing digital infrastructure and e-commerce logistics, promoting digital payments and ensuring network security, the province will train 20,000 e-commerce skills for businesses, cooperatives, and business households; and form an E-commerce Innovation Center.

At the same time, the province builds an e-commerce connection platform in the Mekong Delta region; cooperates in sharing data on OCOP products, agricultural and aquatic products; and develops Vinh Long booths on Amazon, Alibaba and international platforms.

In addition, aiming to develop green and circular e-commerce, the province supports businesses in using recycled packaging, clean logistics, and renewable energy; striving for 50% of e-commerce products to use recycled packaging, and 40% of e-commerce logistics businesses to use clean energy.

Vice Chairman of Vinh Long Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Truc Son affirmed that digital economy is one of the important targets of Vinh Long province in the period 2026-2030.

The province has shifted the GRDP growth axis from the traditional driving force of investment and export to the new growth driver of science, technology and innovation.

E-commerce is no longer an option, but has become an inevitable trend, an important driving force for digital economic development, especially in the context of globalization and increasingly deep integration./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/vinh-long-but-pha-thanh-diem-den-cua-thuong-mai-so-vung-dong-bang-song-cuu-long-post1072347.vnp