Clarifying a number of issues that delegates are interested in about the application of digital technology in the management of e-commerce and online business, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that recently, the State has had many solutions but digital institutions, digital tools, digital skills are lagging behind other countries while the value of e-commerce transactions is increasing by 15 percent-30 percent per year. The best solution is to use technology to solve technology problems.

For example, according to him, software can be developed to detect false advertising, detect goods with signs of counterfeiting. Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that he will cooperate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the management of e-commerce. To clarify the issue further, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also affirmed that e-commerce is an inevitable trend which is highly likely to replace traditional commerce in the foreseeable future.

In Vietnam, the e-commerce regime may be slower than in some other countries; thus, continued institutionalization and concretization of the laws in this field is an urgent task at present. The Ministry of Information and Communications needs to carefully study this issue to build a digital platform (serving e-commerce) for Vietnam so that it can integrate all activities including identification, technology security, payment, customs procedures and synchronous logistics.

To ensure the protection of prudential personal data and the prevention of counterfeit goods, fake goods, and online fraud, the Deputy Prime Minister agreed that it is necessary to institutionalize early to manage social networking platforms. It is necessary to introduce very specific criteria and conditions related to data, transactions, identification, and electronic signatures which are currently not clearly regulated.

Also at the session, the National Assembly deputies continued to put questions to Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien.

Regarding the issue of e-cigarettes, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed that the ministry has always been consistent in its view that it is necessary to protect the health of the people and has proposed that the government stop passing a decree on new-generation tobacco (according to the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms) until the Ministry of Health has an official assessment of the harms of this product. If the Ministry of Health confirms that new tobacco is harmful to health to the extent that it needs to be banned, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will support legal regulations to ban this product.