Trade Minister urges greater promotional efforts for SMEs

Photo: VNGOP

The national trade promotion program 2006-2010 was started in 2006 under Decision 279/QĐ-TTg (dated November 3, 2005) by the PM. Since then, associations and enterprises have played a more active role in setting up and realizing trade promotion programs to develop export markets and increase competitiveness.

Many businesses have regularly updated information and forecast of foreign markets. The advertisement of Vietnamese trademarks and products abroad has been boosted. However, according to Mr. Đỗ Thắng Hải, Head of the Trade Promotion Department, the collaboration among trade promotion organizations is weak and spontaneous, resulting in many overlapped activities of low efficiency. 

Addressing the conference, Trade Minister Trương Đình Tuyển urged the construction and rearrangement of a nationwide trade promotion network. "It is necessary to properly identify beneficiaries from trade promotion," said the Minister, adding that trade promotion should focus on small and medium enterprises at local level. To ensure a sustainable export growth, according to the Trade Minister, enterprises should place importance on products suitable to their capacity and market demand. "The most important is to raise the added value in each product," the Minister stressed.

Minister Trương Đình Tuyển also suggested businesses to spend a portion of benefit from trade promotion work to fund the organizations and bodies conducting trade promotion. This will encourage those organizations to deeply engage in trade promotion, the Minister said.

By Nguyên Hồ