At the Summit of ASEAN - Japan in August 2008, the delegates from the two countries discuss a bilateral activity between the two countries to exchange information on e-commerce. Then, since 2009, the annual e-commerce meeting between Vietnam and Japan has been held alternately between the two countries once a year. The program consists of two main meetings: The legal e-commerce experts meeting and the workshop “Cross border e-commerce: Trends and Opportunities” from both countries. The head of Vietnamese delegation is Mr. Tran Huu Linh – Director General of VECITA – MOIT. The head of Japanese delegation is Mr. Shinji Kakuno - Director of International Affairs Office, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, METI .

At the legal experts meeting on November 11, 2015, the delegates from the two countries share experiences on the state management to solve the issues on e-commerce. In 2015, Vietnam will issue The Master plan of e-commerce development from 2016 to 2020 and the Circular on mobile e-commerce. From Japan, there are plans to modify some important laws relating to e-commerce as the Civil Law, Contract Law for consumers and Specific Trade Law. At the same time, the problems of cross border E-commerce are also raised in the meeting. The experts of the two countries analyse the readiness for cross border E-commerce in Vietnam as well as the barriers to cross border E-commerce in the APEC region.

The legal experts from the two countries

Workshop on e-commerce for businesses of the two countries was held on November 12, 2015 with the participation of legal e-commerce experts from METI, MOIT and representatives of the leading e-commerce corporations from the two countries. The workshop consists of two main sections: Trends and opportunities for cross border e-commerce  and Online dispute settlement mechanism in e-commerce. In the first session, representatives of authorities and enterprises from the two countries agree on the development prospects of cross border e-commerce in the future, pointed out the obstacles in payment, logistics and shared experiences to solve these problems. Mr. Tsuneo Matsumoto, Chairman of Japan Consumer Information Center chaires the second session with other delegates from the two countries on the issues of online dispute resolution for consumers. The two parties signed an agreement to resolve the cross border disputes for online transactions with the representatives from Vietnam E-commerce Development center (EcomViet).

Workshop on November 12, 2015

With the participation of nearly 30 delegates from Japanese and Vietnamese enterprises, the workshop is an opportunity for businesses to establish partnerships and potential exploration on e-commerce in the new markets.

The delegates from Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises

The e-commerce legislation meeting between Vietnam and Japan is necessary and brings many benefits to the state management agencies and enterprises of the two countries. In particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was completed the negotiation process. Then, the cooperation of the two countries will be tightened and developed increasingly in the future. In the context, the two partners agree to cooperate more closely to promote e-commerce between the two countries./.