The Ministry of Industry and Trade has carried out numerous activities to promote e-commerce and narrow the gap between businesses in urban and rural areas in terms of e-commerce development.

However, for the majority of ethnic minority groups in mountainous areas, the sale of products through digital platforms remains limited and challenging.

At a recent workshop on expanding e-commerce channels for and the consumption of products from ethnic minority people and those in mountainous areas, Director of 3T Farm Cooperative Vu Thi Le Thuy said 50 per cent of the cooperative’s 184 household members produce ethnic goods and 70 per cent of people are poor or near poor, so their knowledge of technology is almost zero.

“The use of digital platforms remains less than satisfactory and is the greatest obstacle facing the cooperative at the moment,” she said.

Similarly, Deputy Head of the Center for Agriculture and Trade Promotion at the Tra Vinh Provincial Department of Industry and Trade, Pham Thanh Nam, said the majority of enterprises in the locality are micro, small, or medium-sized, so the application of information technology is quite low.

Additionally, businesses have not paid due regard to training staff in online trade. Regarding product appearance and packaging, many finished items are not attractive and do not meet standards. And the quality of products remains inconsistent. All of these factors lead to certain obstacles for businesses when approaching markets through digital channels.

Businesses have also not proactively exploited new distribution channels, instead mostly focusing on traditional markets.

From the standpoint of State management, Mr. Nguyen An Son from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency said the major obstacle to sales of products by people from ethnic minority groups on e-commerce platforms is that they must compete with equivalents from other businesses and also with fake and counterfeit products.

“In addition, limited human resources greatly affect the development of e-commerce applications, especially human resources at businesses of ethnic minority groups and those in mountainous areas,” he said.