Representatives from state agencies, enterprises and providers of public digital-signature authentication services at a workshop on August 24 discussed the importance of having digital signature technology to enhance e-transaction security.

The workshop, held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Information and Communications in HCM City, urged agencies and companies to use digital signatures in e-commerce and e-government.

"One of the solutions to ensure data security in e-transactions is the use of digital signatures," said Tran Huu Linh, deputy head of the Department of E-Commerce and Information and Technology.

"An unsecured network is one of the obstacles hindering the development of e-commerce among enterprises," Linh said.

The e-transaction market will continue its upward trend as e-government begins to be applied and as the number of internet users is predicted to increase to 45-50 million users by 2012. Within the last year, the Ministry of Information and Communications granted public digital-signature authentication licenses to the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), Military Telecom Group (Viettel), BKAV Network Security Company, NacenComm Technologies Joint-Stock Company and FPT Information System Corporation.

A master plan to develop e-commerce for the 2011-15 period approved by the Prime Minister last month targets official recognition from foreign digital-signature authentication organisations by 2015./.