Decision No. 222/2005/QD-TTg dated September 15, 2005 of the Prime Minister approving the master plan for e-commerce development in the 2006-2010 period

DECISION

APPROVING THE MASTER PLAN FOR E-COMMERCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 2006-2010 PERIOD

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Politburo’s Directive No. 58/CT-TW of October 17, 2000 on promoting the application and development of information technology in the cause of industrialization and modernization from 2001 till 2005;

Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 272/2003/QD-Ttg of December 31, 2005 approving the Strategy for the development of science and technology in Vietnam till 2010;

At the proposals of the Minister of Trade,

DECIDE:

Article 1. To approve the master plan for e-commerce development in the 2006-2010 period with the following major contents:

I. DEVELOPMENT POSITION

1. E-commerce development helps promote trade and enhance the business competitiveness in the context of Vietnam increasingly integrating into the world economy;

2. The State plays the role of establishing legal environment and favorable mechanism and policies for attracting advanced technology and encouraging enterprises to apply e-commerce; providing public services supporting e-commerce activities;

3. E-commerce development must be closely linked to the application and development of information technology and communications.

II. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

By the year 2010, e-commerce development need to have achieved the following major goals:

1. Approximately 60% of large-scaled enterprises conduct “business-to-business” e-commerce transactions;

2. About 80% of medium- and small-sized enterprises are aware of the benefits brought about by e-commerce and conduct “business-to-consumer” or “business-to-business” e-commerce transactions;

3. Some 10% of households conduct “business-to-consumer” or “consumer-to-consumer” e-commerce transactions;

4. Government procurement tendering invitations are published on electronic newspaper by Government agencies and e-commerce transactions are applied in Government procurement.

III. MAJOR POLICIES AND SOLUTIONS

1. To conduct training and propaganda on and popularization of e-commerce.

- To development the human resource in a synchronized and balanced manner on the basis of mobilizing resources contributed by the entire society. First and foremost, to focus on training the human resource and assist in the promotion of e-commerce application among large enterprises. The State has policies supporting the initial stages for specific programmes with concrete goals and objectives;

- In the 2006-2010 period, to provide standardized training in universities, colleges, vocational secondary schools in the fields of law and economics; while simultaneously undertaking general education programmes in vocational schools in the fields of trade and business administration; providing training for state management officials in charge of policy making and law enforcement with respect to e-commerce at the Central, provincial and municipal levels; encouraging enterprises to take part in providing e-commerce education services;

 - To popularize and propagandize widely on e-commerce among the people, firstly for the business community, administration agencies and industrial associations.

2. Improving and completing the legal system

- By the end of 2006, to fully promulgate the by-laws to implement the Law on Electronic Transactions, Commercial Law and Civil Code, laying the legal foundation for data message. By the end of 2007, to fully promulgate legal documents regulating e-commerce-related aspects of dispute settlement, consumer protection, intellectual property rights protection, crime prevention and fighting, and issues of domestic tax and customs tariff.

- To review, supplement and amend concerned legal documents in order to ensure that the entire legal system is generally oriented towards supporting and facilitating e-commerce development.

3. Requirements for Government agencies in charge of providing services in support of e-commerce and conducting electronic transactions in Government procurement:

- By the year 2010, government agencies will have brought all public services online, of which priority is given to the services of: electronic tax, electronic customs, electronic import-export procedures, electronic procedures related to investment and business registration, specialized trade licenses and dispute settlement procedures;

- To amend regulations on tendering in Government procurement in the direction where investors have to publish tender invitations on the electronic newspaper of the state management body responsible for tendering as well as electronic newspapers by other agencies. The Central Ministries and branches, and local authorities in big cities have to gradually negotiate and conclude Government procurement contracts online.

4. To develop technologies in support of e-commerce on the basis of encouraging technology transfer from abroad:

- To issue and popularize policies and measures to encourage investment in technology development to serve e-commerce activities; and common standards used in e-commerce, particularly the electronic data interchange standards (EDI and ebXML);

- To encourage and assist banks and credit organizations in applying new technologies in banking activities and different types of banking services, especially electronic payment service; establishing electronic business network for some industries with large economic scale.

5. To organize the implementation of legal regulations related to e-commerce:

- To establish effective mechanism and apparatus to enforce intellectual property rights protection, protection of consumers, personal secrets and to settle disputes arising from e-commerce in accordance with laws and regulations in force;

- To promptly conduct statistical operations on e-commerce.

6. International cooperation on e-commerce:

- To give priority to multilateral cooperation with international and regional economic and trade organizations like WTO, APEC, ASEAN, ASEM and specifically trade-specialized United Nations bodies such as UNCTAD, UNCITRAL, UNCEFACT.

- To give priority to bilateral cooperation with advanced countries in the field of e-commerce and with countries who have big trading volumes with Vietnam.

IV. PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS

Programmes with specific projects aimed at implementing the major policies and measures to be carried out in the 2006-2010 period:

1. Programme of popularization, propaganda and training on e-commerce;

2. Programme of building and improving the legal system for e-commerce;

3. Programme of providing public services in support of e-commerce and applying e-commerce in Government procurement;

4. Programme of developing technologies in support of e-commerce;

5. Programme of enforcing laws related to e-commerce;

6. Programme of international cooperation on e-commerce;

 The content and implementation assignment of the projects and programmes are stipulated in the Appendix attached to this Decision.

Article 2. Organization of implementation

- The Ministries, ministry-level and Government agencies, the People Committees of provinces and cities directly under the Central Government who are assigned to preside over projects within programmes mentioned in Section IV, Article 1, are responsible for setting up implementation plans for the entire 5 year period from 2006 to 2010 and concrete plans for 2006.

- To designate the Ministry of Planning and Investment to preside, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade, over balancing, synthesizing and arranging budgets in the 5-year State plan and annual plans for the programmes and projects carried out by the Ministries, ministry-level agencies, the People Committees of provinces and cities directly under the Central Government.

- To designate the Ministry of Trade to preside, in coordination with the Ministries, ministry-level agencies, the People Committees of provinces and cities directly under the Central Government, over organizing the implementation of this Decision; annually synthesizing the implementation progress, proposing solutions needed to promote the task, submitting to the Prime Minister for decision; summarizing and reporting to the Prime Minister the results in the year ending the master plan.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect after 15 days since the date of publishment on the Official Gazette.

Article 4. The Ministers, Heads of ministry-level agencies, Heads of Government agencies, Chairpersons of the People Committees of provinces and cities directly under the Central Government, assume responsibility for the implementation of this Decision./.

APPENDIX

PROGRAMMES WITH SPECIFIC PROJECTS IN IMPLEMENTING THE MASTER PLAN FOR E-COMMERCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 2006-2010 PERIOD
(Attached to the Prime Minister’s Decision No.222/2005/QD-TTg of September 15, 2005)

I. PROGRAMME OF POPULARIZATION, PROPAGANDA AND TRAINING ON E-COMMERCE

II. PROGRAMME OF BUILDING AND IMPROVING THE LEGAL SYSTEM FOR E-COMMERCE

III. PROGRAMME OF PROVIDING ONLINE PUBLIC SERVICES AND APPLYING E-COMMERCE IN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT

IV. PROGRAMME OF DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES IN SUPPORT OF E-COMMERCE

V. PROGRAMME OF ENFORCING LAWS RELATED TO E-COMMERCE

VI. PROGRAMME OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON E-COMMERCE