Hanoi (VNA) - Cross-border e-commerceis serving as an effective channel for companies, especially small- and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs), to ship products abroad in the context of COVID-19, DeputyDirector of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade Tran Thi Phuong Lan hassaid.

She made the remarks at a recent seminar on such commerce with Amazon and the export opportunities for Vietnamese businesses. Hostedby the department, it brought together nearly 300 firms.

They were advised to study various tasks in order todevise suitable e-commerce operation strategies and succeed.

Assistance packages were also introduced to helpVietnamese firms export goods to the international market.

E-commerce has been a bright spot in the country’sdevelopment, with an average growth rate of 14 percent over the first threequarters of 2020. Bolstering the application of e-commerce and the digitaleconomy is therefore vital amid the global spread of COVID-19, the seminar heard.

Complexities brought by the pandemic in the earlymonths of this year have hampered exports from Vietnam and those from Hanoi inparticular.

The capital earned an estimated 13.19 million USDfrom exports in the first 10 months of 2020, up a mere 0.1 percent against thesame period last year.

Given that e-commerce accounts for 8 percent ofHanoi’s retail sales and services revenue, the city ranks among Vietnam’s toplocalities in the e-commerce development index.

Hanoiis set to arrange more similar events and in-depth training courses on exportsvia e-commerce for local companies as well as enhance logistics infrastructuredevelopment, in cooperation with major e-commerce platforms of the world, Lansaid./.