Handicrafts eye post-crisis opportunities

The Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City will help its members capitalise on post-crisis opportunities to boost exports and expand their domestic market, its chairman has said.

Speaking at a meeting held last week to review the association’s performance last year, Nguyen Chien Thang said the association had played an important role in the last several years by acting as a bridge between the Government and businesses, communicating the Government’s policies to enterprises and conveying the latter’s demands.

It had held professional training courses, trade promotions and seminars to help members strengthen their competitiveness and expand their markets, the meeting heard.

“Its up-to-date website has gradually become a key source of information for businesses,” Nguyen Thanh Phong, Hawa general secretary, said.

This year it would organise more seminars, fairs, training courses and trade promotion programmes to support its members, Thang said

It would also continue to gather opinion to provide the Government inputs for effective policy-making, he added.

Tran Quoc Manh, Hawa deputy chairman, said four to five exhibitions on wooden products would be held this year, offering members the opportunity to introduce their handicrafts and wooden products to the market and seek partners.

The association would also co-operate with relevant agencies to organise trade promotions and foreign market-research trips, he said

“If our trade promotion programmes are methodical and long-term, our products will surely become more popular around the world.”

There had been a recovery in recent months with the situation expected to become brighter, he added.

Nguyen Quoc Khanh, another deputy chairman of the association and chairman of AA Corporation, advised companies that hope to expand domestic sales to invest more in developing professional design staff and researching into consumers’ demands and tastes.

Wooden exports were worth US$2.55 billion last year, 8.9 per cent down from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Timber imports were worth $888 million, down 19.1 percent.

Hawa, which was established in 1991, has 325 members.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Tags: Vietnam Handicrafts