Lack of regional linkages makes large-scale exports difficult.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade , the linkage of production chains and trade promotion has brought many benefits in expanding markets for key products of localities. To fully utilize the potential and advantages of regional linkages, since the beginning of 2024, the Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) has advised the Ministry to coordinate with the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-governed cities to co-organize trade promotion and import-export development conferences in key economic regions.
Through these programs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade directly participates and collaborates with localities in each economic region to carry out large-scale trade promotion activities, focusing on export-oriented industries and sectors, and key export markets. This is also a new direction for trade promotion in 2024, serving as a foundation for focused and targeted trade promotion activities in the future.
Assessing the potential and highlighting the challenges of regional linkages in current trade promotion at the seminar "Leveraging Regional Linkage Resources in Trade Promotion" organized by the Industry and Trade Magazine on August 26th, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy – Deputy Director of the Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) stated that both management agencies and businesses recognize the importance and inevitable trend of needing to join hands, cooperate, and combine to participate in activities with a regional and inter-regional linkage nature. However, there are still quite a few shortcomings in implementing regional linkages in trade promotion.
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| Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy – Deputy Director of the Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Agency |
“We aim to strengthen regional linkage promotion activities. However, there isn't a large enough venue to gather a large number of businesses from different regions, especially now that Vietnam is considered a 'hub' on the world map – a major supply center for many products and goods such as rice, coffee, cashews, etc.,” Ms. Thuy emphasized.
Furthermore, according to Ms. Thuy, trade promotion resources from the central to local levels are also very limited. For example, the cost of taking businesses to foreign markets to participate in trade fairs and exhibitions is very high. Only large corporations are willing to spend money, while for small businesses, this is a difficult problem that requires careful planning.
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| Overview of the seminar "Leveraging regional linkages in trade promotion" |
Furthermore, the coordination between central and local trade promotion agencies remains weak. As a result, many activities are fragmented, overlapping, and have not been able to combine resources for joint operations.
Therefore, according to Ms. Thuy, in the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will develop a plan for localities to jointly organize larger-scale overseas trade delegations, bringing more valuable products to foreign markets, creating a higher media impact for businesses.
Assistance from the trade promotion support model
Sharing his views on current advantages and challenges from a local perspective, Mr. Dinh Lam Sang, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Kan province, said that in recent years, especially in 2023 and the first months of 2024, the trade promotion efforts of the Bac Kan Department of Industry and Trade have been quite successful. In particular, it has facilitated direct and indirect contact between businesses, cooperatives, and entities with OCOP-certified products through the connections established by the Department of Industry and Trade between provinces. This has allowed them to learn about and exchange information on goods, thereby fostering connections in the consumption of these products.
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| Mr. Dinh Lam Sang – Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Kan province |
"Establishing OCOP product showrooms and sales points not just for our province, but for multiple provinces, means that goods from our province will be available at OCOP product sales points in other provinces. Conversely, OCOP products from other provinces will be available at sales and product showrooms in our province to enhance product exchange and meet the needs of the people," Mr. Sang emphasized.
In particular, Mr. Sang cited examples such as mountainous areas needing goods from the lowlands, rural areas needing goods from outside urban areas, or especially mountainous areas needing OCOP products from coastal areas like Hai Phong and Quang Ninh, etc. This is one of the guiding principles of the provincial leadership: to link and direct trade promotion to link regions and exchange goods between them.
From a business perspective, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Van, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of Huong Van Tea Cooperative, also believes that without collaboration and the right approach, one can never go far.
“A commercial marketplace needs good infrastructure because, when all products are brought together, large-scale shopping centers are needed to connect products from different provinces. There, customers can choose from a wide variety of products from different regions and provinces with complete peace of mind. Because shopping centers only offer high-quality products, people can buy products from various places and provinces wherever they go. This is the most advantageous aspect, meeting the current needs of customers,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Van expressed.
Agreeing with this viewpoint, Mr. Sang also stated: "Business entities and cooperatives urgently need financial mechanisms, specifically loans, especially in remote areas, and seasonal goods require access to capital."
According to the Deputy Director of the Export Support Center, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will be piloting a new regional-based trade promotion support model next year. This model involves organizing regional-scale trade delegations abroad (Winning with Vietnam).
Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a plan for localities to jointly organize larger-scale overseas trade delegations, bringing more valuable products to foreign markets and creating a greater media impact for businesses. This will be one of the key activities in supporting regional trade promotion that the Ministry of Industry and Trade will implement in 2025.
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