Information technology and e-commerce are indispensible aspects of business strategy and essential to helping enterprises reorient themselves towards profitability and growth, the director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's IT and e-commerce department Tran Huu Linh has said.Five years of implementation of the master plan to promote e-commerce during 2006-10 had demonstrated the key role it played in enhancing competitiveness, Linh said."Up-to-date e-commerce has also become popular with individuals, particularly young people," he said.Immediately after the Prime Minister's decision o­n developing e-commerce during 2011-15 was issued in 2010, Linh's department collaborated with local industry and trade departments, universities, service providers and the business community to implement the given objectives, with 57 cities and provinces publishing local e-commerce development plans through 2015."This suggests a great interest in e-commerce, and the benefits that e-commerce offers for rural and remote areas become clearer," Linh said.Over 60 training courses o­n e-commerce were held in nearly 40 locations around the country last year, demonstrating the allure of e-commerce to the business community, he added. "E-Commerce not o­nly creates linkages within a company; it also enables the company to enjoy greater value."As IT capacity keeps improving, businesses without a strong systems in place would face difficulties, Linh suggested. Therefore, he said his department was focused o­n drafting a new decree guiding e-commerce operations. It would also continue to popularise e-commerce in the media and organise training and support programmes for businesses.Web portals serving export promotion would also be targeted for improvement, he said.