Vietnam eyes stronger e-commerce application in agriculture

Hanoi (VNA) - Visa Inc., one of the largest electronic payment technology company, has cooperated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Vietnam e-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency (iDEA) to speed up digital transformation in agribusinesses, cooperatives and farmer households in Vietnam.

Accordingly, the two sides have signed a cooperation agreement to promote e-commerce applications and acceptance of digital payments in order to affirm the agriculture sector’s key position in Vietnam’s economic development.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Director of Visa in Vietnam and Laos, said that through its cooperation with iDEA, Visa can contribute its expertise, and bring its electronic payment solutions closer to Vietnam's agriculture sector.

Digitalisation will help create advantages for Vietnamese producers to develop faster, and modernise and improve the capacity of agricultural product distribution systems of the country, she said.

Although agriculture is a key economic sector of Vietnam as it contributes 14 percent of the country's GDP but its growth prospects have not been fully exploited due to the lack of operational and financial management tools, she noted.

Visa will accompany production enterprises, agribusinesses, cooperatives and farmer households to gradually establish sale on digital platforms, and coordinate with units that accept digital payment, thus creating a solid premise for Vietnam’s agricultural development in the future, Dung added.

Bui Huy Hoang, deputy director of iDEA’s informatics and digital technology centre, emphasised the need of e-commerce for production in general and the agriculture sector in particular, saying that the cooperation programme is hoped to help agribusinesses, cooperatives, and farmer households address difficulties related to digital transformation.

With its efforts, Visa demonstrates its long-term goal to help Vietnam become a cashless country with innovative and advanced payment infrastructure, and promote a stronger society through expanding development of digital platforms./.