Hanoi (VNA) - US-based e-commerce giant Amazon has recently announced Vietnam’s conglomerate T&T Group as its strategic business partner, and the Sai Gon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) as its first financial partner in the Southeast Asian nation.

Amazon officially enters Vietnam by teaming up with T&T, SHB hinh anh 1At the ceremony to announce strategic partnership between Amazon and T&T Group and SHB (Photo: VietnamPlus)

The announcement was made at the Cross-border E-commerce Summit held in Ho Chi Minh City on December 4. The event saw the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Trade Promotion Agency, strategic partners and Amazon Global Selling Vietnam.

Under the cooperation deal, they will work together in two main fields: training human resources in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and supporting Vietnamese exporters to run their business on Amazon’s e-commerce platform via banking system.

Besides, the trio will carry out their long-term strategies in Vietnam under its programme to operate support centres for Vietnamese exporters at SHB’s large branches across the nation. The centres are expected to become e-commerce training facilities for Vietnamese firms who want to ship their products abroad via Amazon’s platform by directing them how to open accounts and providing documents on effective sales on Amazon, among others.

SHB will then launch products and services suitable for individual and corporate customers who are interested in selling products on Amazon.

Do Quang Hien, Chairman and General Manager of T&T Group, said partnership with Amazon is a significant event, holding the technology giant is a modern and effective e-commerce platform, where Vietnamese products can be reached by 300 million buyers worldwide as Amazon has websites in 18 countries with 27 languages, a wide range of goods and 175 distribution centres that ship goods to 185 countries.

“T&T Group, SHB and I want to make contributions to the development of Vietnamese small and medium sized enterprises, helping them reach out to the world. We will accompany Amazon with a view to making Vietnam become a leading nation in Asia in terms of e-commerce in the future”, Hien stressed.

The same day, global e-commerce company Amazon Global Selling also announced that it would further enhance awareness of online exports and expand to more regions in Vietnam next year.

Amazon said it would organise more offline educational workshops and work closer with partners to drive awareness.

Its other strategies include providing more services and tools, expanding to new marketplaces and building service partner networks.

It introduced Amazon Advertising to the Vietnamese sellers.

The company also plans to launch Amazon Singapore, one more international marketplace that will be available to Vietnamese sellers in addition to Amazon.com.

The company will identify and build a service partner network to help sellers efficiently explore global opportunities.

Bernard Tay, head of Amazon Global Selling South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and country leader, Amazon.sg seller services, said: “Vietnam is a country with good potential for cross-border e-commerce development. It has advantages in manufacturing, a lot of young talent and a strong online community.

“Amazon Global Selling is a trusted and thriving channel to connect local sellers. With Amazon Global Selling team in Viet Nam, we will provide localised support to Vietnamese selling partners throughout their journey to sell on Amazon.”

The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Vietrade to collaborate for exporting via e-commerce, building Vietnamese e-commerce brands with Amazon, developing Vietnamese human resources in e-commerce, and modelling store and policy collaboration.

Alibaba and Amazon, both e-commerce giants, are taking steps to attract Vietnamese businesses to their platforms. Experts have said e-commerce is an effective channel to help Vietnamese SMEs export their goods./.

VNA