Trade to receive more promotion

Vietnam Comm 2009 was the biggest information and communication technology exhibition held in Ha Noi last year. More than 300 fairs and exhibitions took place nationwide.

The Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade this year would continue to co-operate with overseas trade offices and international agencies to disseminate more information to local companies on markets and products.

In addition to completing the policy on supporting trade promotional activities in the period of 2011-15 to submit to the Government for approval, the agency would also open more training courses to help local trade promotion offices and industry associations enhance their operations.

It would also organise business trips for domestic firms to explore business opportunities and participate in trade fairs and exhibitions abroad.

Improving the quality and effectiveness of trade promotional activities and supporting firms in developing their distribution systems in the hope of gaining a firm foothold in the local market would also be included.

“Diversified trade promotional activities last year made an effective contribution to promoting the country’s industrial output as well as spurring domestic consumption,” said the agency director, Do Thang Hai.

“These activities which focus on encouraging Vietnamese to use Vietnamese products and help local businesses to improve the quality of their products and services,” he said.

As many as 131 national trade promotional programmes which received more than VND146 billion (US$7.9 million) in State financial support were launched last year, resulting in 2,900 memorandum of understandings and contracts, worth over $1.45 billion, signed among businesses.

Thirteen more

Recently, another 13 trade promotion programmes proposed by localities were submitted to the Government for approval, he said, adding that if adopted, the programmes would be implemented this year.

Besides a large number of promotional programmes with over 1,000 recognised nation-wide, last year also experienced an encouraging improvement in the quality of organised fairs and exhibitions, he said.

Over 300 fairs and exhibitions took place around the country in 2009 with 167 of them held in Ha Noi and HCM City. Hai described the events as effective channels to bridge the locally-made products to Vietnamese customers.

Despite significant improvements to organisation and export volume over the past few years, the quality and effectiveness of Viet Nam’s trade promotional systems needs to be improved.

The biggest weaknesses in the system were limited operating budgets, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of co-operation among authorities, the agency and trade promotion offices in localities and industry associations, Hai noted.

VietNamNet/VNS

Tags: Vietnam trade