Farmers profit from agro exports 

 

Farmers in the Mekong Delta provinces have profited in the last one month from a price increase in exports of agricultural products. 

 

Currently, bananas cost VND5, 000-8,000 per kilogram, an increase of VND2, 500 per kilogram compared to the end of 2010. Jackfruit and papaya prices have also increased.  Jackfruit and papaya farmers can now earn VND300 million per hectare.

 

In the Long An and Tien Giang provinces of the Mekong Delta region, water melon costs VND5,600-6,500 per kilogram, the highest price ever.

 

Watermelon farmers can get VND70-100 million per hectare, which is more profitable than growing rice.

 

Chanh Thu Company and 36 rambutan-producing households in Cho Lach District in Ben Tre Province are making rambutan products that meet with Global Good Agricultural Practices (Global Gap) standards. Meeting these standards is considered a “passport” into the global market.

 

Coffee exporters must unite

 

Coffee exporters must unite to establish firms that are strong enough to compete against foreign rivals, said industry insiders.

 

Former chairman of the Viet Nam Coffee and Cacao Association (Vicofa) Doan Trieu Nhan admitted that domestic coffee exporters were facing major challenges due to the cost of taking out business loans compared to their foreign counterparts.

 

Domestic exporters recently called on the Government to provide support in the form of preferential loans.

 

Luong Van Tu, chairman of the association, said that coffee prices had surged sharply in recent months to a record VND50,000 per kilo, creating fierce competition among buyers. Domestic exporters complained that they could not compete with foreign rivals in buying up coffee bean stocks.

 

Vicofa recently asked the authorities in coffee growing provinces to clamp down on foreign businesses setting up illegal buying networks. It said that the Government's policies only allowed foreign companies to invest in coffee growing, processing, and preserving for export – and the transfer of advanced technology. They were not permitted to use their networks to buy coffee.

 

However, industry insiders admitted that the ban was only a temporary measure as the country would sooner or later have to open the coffee market for foreign wholesalers in accordance with World Trade Organisation commitments.

 

"The Government's support is just a sticking-plaster measure. For a long-term solution, domestic coffee exporters must unite to set up large-sized firms capable of competing against foreign rivals," said Nhan.

 

Vicofa chairman Luong Van Tu also admitted that the coffee industry was short of an association that was strong enough to link domestic coffee exporters through comprehensive and practical strategies.

 

"We can learn from Brazil, Colombia, India and Indonesia which have hundreds of years of experience in the coffee industry," said Tu.

 

Nguyen Dinh Bich, a market analyst from the Trade Research Institute, said that the Government should encourage domestic and foreign investment in the coffee processing industry to benefit both farmers and exporters.

 

Investing in processing technologies to transform Viet Nam from a country relying on raw coffee into an exporter providing processed products was indispensable for the industry to sustainably develop, Bich said.

 

"Only by through this can exporters make higher profits, with farmers being able to avoid being forced into selling coffee bean at low prices," Bich said.

 

Dragon fruit co-op on the verge of disintegration

 

Ham Minh Dragon Fruit Co-operative in Phan Thiet City of Binh Thuan Province is facing the threat of disintegration after incurring losses of VND2 billion, which has also taken the co-op chairman out of his job.

 

Eleven members of the co-op last week agreed on the resignation of chairman Nguyen Thuan due to a loss of over VND2 billion after six years of unsuccessful operations, which has also resulted in many clients severing ties with the co-op.

 

Nguyen Thuan, who is also a vice chairman of Binh Thuan Province, confirmed his resignation at Ham Minh Dragon Fruit Co-operative with the Daily on Monday on the phone and the downbeat business at the co-op

 

“Many traditional clients of the co-operative from England, China, the U.S. and Japan have cut off business relations with us of late because of the low business efficiency of the co-operative,” said Thuan.

 

Some main reasons for the huge losses, which bring the co-operative closer to the verge of bankruptcy, include poor business governance, lack of technology in preserving fruits as well as the conflicts of interest between the co-op members. The unstable business at the co-op has driven customers away, he said. 

 

For example, a client of the co-operative from England used to buy four containers of dragon fruit a month, but at the moment, this client has severed its business relationship with the co-operative due to its unstable business, Thuan said.

 

Established in 2005 with 11 members, Ham Minh Dragon Fruit Co-operative has been famous for exporting large amounts of dragon fruits from Binh Thuan to other countries.

 

The ex-chairman also revealed that the difficulties started have emerged since 2009 when many of its export containers had a high proportion of damaged dragon fruits, particularly the shipments to England, although its fruits are certified to meet GlobalGap standards.

 

“Our clients in England would demand compensation if the ratio of damaged fruits is higher than 10%, but some batches had a ratio of over 70%,” he said.

 

Thuan said at the moment, the biggest difficulty for the co-operative as well as for other dragon fruit enterprises in the province was a lack of experiences and technology in preserving the fruits for export after the harvest.

 

Although many enterprises have been trained for to apply scientific measures for the fruit preservation, such measures are still impractical compared to the strict requirements for export, he said.

 

“If we don’t find out solutions for preserving the fruits, local dragon fruit exporters will face a host of difficulties,” said the ex-chairman of the co-operative and chairman of the province’s Dragon Fruit Association.

 

Members of Ham Minh Co-op have voted for Nguyen Minh Dinh, a member of the co-operative, to temporarily replace Nguyen Thuan.

 

Over-production drives down steel prices

 

Viet Nam's steel industry is caught in a conundrum.

 

Supply far exceeds demand and existing capacities are not being fully utilised, but even more projects with large designed capacities have been licensed.

 

A Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper report yesterday cited Viet Nam Steel Association (VSA) figures that at the end of the year's first quarter, the total designed capacity of steel billet factories nationwide was 6 million tonnes, but only 3.527 million tonnes were actually produced.

 

Similarly, the country produced 5.6 million tonnes of rolled steel while the total designed capacity is about 9 million tonnes a year.

 

Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the VSA, said the current situation could have been predicted three years ago when virtually "every household and every factory was producing steel".

 

In the first four months of the year, consumption of construction steel was 1.7 million tonnes, up 12.3 per cent year-on-year.

 

The consumption of steel in April tended to reduce due to the effect of government's policy to cut public investment, Cuong said.

 

The domestic steel market had adjustment and went down in both production and prices.

 

Viet Nam Steel Corporation affirmed it sold 169,000 tonnes last month, down 3,500 tonnes against March.

 

It is having 211,400 tonnes of rolled steel and 26,600 tonnes of plated steel in stock, up 36.5 per cent and 2.2 times respectively year-on-year.

 

In spite of the excessive capacities which could lead to fierce competition between producers, enterprises have continuously launched finished production lines into the market.

 

Under the 2007-25 development plan approved by the Government, the country was to produce 3.5-3.5 million tonnes of steel billets by 2010 and 12-15 million tonnes by 2025. It would also turn out 6.3-6.5 million tonnes of finished steel products by 2010 and 19-22 million tonnes by 2025.

 

However, by the end of last year, the total capacity of steel projects nationwide had reached 6 million tonnes of steel billets and 9 million tonnes of finished steel products, far ahead of the target.

 

With the projects that have already been registered for the 2015-20 period, the production capacity of steel billets will reach 16.28 million tonnes a year, while that of finished steel products will rise to 33.575 million tonnes a year by 2020, according to the VSA.

 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said about 60 per cent of the licensed steel projects so far have annual capacities of more than 100,000 tonnes.

 

It has petitioned the Government to amend the authorisation process for steel projects.

 

The Government should instruct localities to revoke licences of projects that are stalled or unduly delayed without proper reason, the ministry has proposed.

 

It has also asked that provincial governments stop licensing projects producing normal construction steel that does not require special technology, because supply has far exceeded demand.

 

There are currently three huge steel complex projects that are either at a standstill or have had their licence revoked.

 

The US$9.8 billion Ca Na-Ninh Thuan Steel Complex in central coastal Ninh Thuan Province has had its licence revoked because its investors, the Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) and Malaysia's Lion Group, have not been able to implement it.

 

Meanwhile, the Lao Dong report said, no action had been taken for many objective reasons in the project to build a $5 billion steel complex in central Ha Tinh Province with a designed annual capacity of 4.5 million tonnes; as well as another to build a $600 million steel plant in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with a capacity of 2 million tonnes of rolled steel per year.

 

Investors for the first project are India's Tata group and the VSC; while Essar, also of India, the VSC and the Viet Nam Rubber Corporation are investors for the second one.

 

Push for better living conditions

 

Drastic measures have been urged to improve the hard living and working conditions in industrial parks and economic zones across the country, especially in a period of high inflation.

 

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said in Ha Noi yesterday the measures needed to include a legal framework to regulate minimum working conditions and rights for employees, cultural and entertainment facilities, a wage policy and housing support.

 

Dong told the conference on working and living conditions in the parks and zones that about 1.6 million labourers had contributed to the development of the 260 parks and 15 zones throughout Viet Nam.

 

There were nearly 4,000 foreign-invested projects with total registered investment of over US$53.6 billion last year alone.

 

Another 4,400 domestic projects with a total capital of VND336 trillion ($16.3 billion) had been attracted last year, bringing the total turnover in the parks and zones to $33.3 billion.

 

The turnover of exports had reached $19 billion and imports $18.5 billion, Dong said.

 

However, the average income of workers was VND2 million ($97.5) a month including allowances for transport, rent and overtime while inflation had caused prices to rocket, making workers' lives very difficult.

 

"More than 48 per cent of workers have low-incomes, forcing them to work extra hours, making their lives a misery," he said.

 

Relevant agencies and businesses should co-operate to ensure living and working conditions of workers, which were increasing in numbers by 10-15 per cent a year but there was no legal framework to force them to do it, Dong said.

 

Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour's Worker and Trade Union Institute head Dang Quang Dieu said the wages of most workers did not increase between 2003-07 and over the last three years 70 per cent of workers got a wage increase while the rest did not.

 

"In addition, most parks and zones have not invested in building houses for their employees, so half of the workers have to pay high rents to live in rooms without essential conditions," he said.

 

Most were not able to access cultural, sport and entertainment activities because the parks and zones had not invested in such venues, nor had they invested in clinics, kindergartens and clubs.

 

"The social and spiritual lives of these workers in rental houses remain unsatisfactory, placing them at risk of social evils."

 

Provincial authorities and enterprises had also failed to contribute to the improvement of workers' lives, he said.

 

A Vung Ang Economic Zone representative said houses and social infrastructure for workers had not met demands because the investment requirement in the zone was large and the return on capital slow.

 

"Workers' incomes are low because most of the enterprises in the zones are small," the representative said.

 

Also, there was no legal basis to require improvements in workers' living conditions, which had tied the hands of authorities. A specific legal mechanism on housing for labourers should be created.

 

"The Government should prioritise to invest in upgrading infrastructure in parks and zones to attract more investment and improve workers' lives," he said.

 

Nguyen Huu Trong, deputy head of the Nam Dinh Industrial Parks Management Board in northern Nam Dinh Province, said improving living conditions for the 3,000 workers at 122 businesses in industrial parks in his region was fraught with difficulties.

 

"Wage and bonus policies have failed to keep up with current situations, limiting the rights of workers," Trong said.

 

He urged businesses to live up to their social responsibilities and improve conditions for their employees, and called on workers to be active in their workplaces to improve skills and report difficulties to the State and trade unions.

 

Dieu from the institute said enterprises should increase workers' allowances in line with increased prices.

 

"Every business should have a wage policy that is linked to changes in the market and localities need to establish a housing development fund to build houses for workers, as initiated by the Construction Ministry," he said.

 

New law on deposit insurance possible

 

A new law on deposit insurance might be built during the 2011-12 period in an effort to improve the operation of this business, General Director of the Deposit Insurance of Viet Nam Bui Khac Son said.

 

Deposit insurance is defined as a measure implemented in many countries in order to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due. Deposit insurance systems form one component of a financial system's safety net and promote financial stability.

 

"We feel that a new deposit insurance law, which could help clarify functions on the service implementation in order to protect customers while ensuring the effectiveness of the banking system, is a crucial necessity," Son said in Monday online talk on deposit insurance opened in Government web portal chinhphu.vn.

 

Functions governed by a proper law would lead to more efficient protection, he added.

 

Deputy Director of the Deposit Insurance of Viet Nam (DIV), Nguyen Manh Dung, said that deposit insurers also had to take responsibility for supervising deposit receivers.

 

"Supervision could help protect deposit receivers from unexpected calamities while ensuring the safety of depositors."

 

Son added that DIV had developed two monitoring systems whereby remote monitoring depended on data and reports from participants (banks, financial companies and credit funds) in order to make early alerts possible.

 

Insurers could send messages to alert organisations and other related organs, such as the State Bank, to ask for assistance, he said, while in-place control allowed deposit insurers to visit alerted organisations in order to check for risks.

 

"In-place controls are currently rare. The new law will have detailed regulations regarding the establishment of such controls," Dung said.

 

The online talks raised some suggestions on increasing the quota of insurance payments currently set at VND50 million (US$2,400). Suggestions were based on the increase in both life standards and deposits sent to commercial banks.

 

The quota was increased from VND30 million to VND50 million (representing five times the income per capita during the year) in August 2005. From 2005 until now, per capita income has risen to $1,100 a year; the VND50 million quota accounted for $2,400.

 

Son argued that the VND50 million quota should be revised and reasonably adjusted to meet reality. "Some countries around the world revised their quotas for insurance payments after the economic crisis; some even applied unlimited insurance payments."

 

DIV adjusted its policies when deposits at commercial banks increased. Whether these adjustments were suitable or not, however, remained open for discussion, Son concluded.

 

Rice exporters try to crack new markets

 

Domestic rice exporters face plenty of obstacles to trading in strict South Korean and Japanese markets, experts said.

 

Le An Hai, commercial counsellor for Viet Nam in South Korea, said that during 2011, South Korea planned to import 347,658 tonnes of rice, making it a great potential market for Vietnamese rice.

 

To be successful, Vietnamese rice exporters had to be experienced in exporting rice at electronic auctions, Hai said.

 

Electronic auctions are new to many local rice exporters, said Cao Thi Ngoc Hoa, deputy general director of Southern Food Corporation.

 

Domestic rice exporters had often joined in direct auctions, but not in electronic auctions, she said.

 

Although Japan planned to import 250,000 tonnes of rice from Viet Nam, local rice exporters could not cope with the order because of poor market research and knowledge regarding modern market trading methods, said Ho Xuan Hung, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

An additional obstacle to trading in South Korean and Japanese markets is consistent quality of rice.

 

Hoa said that her corporation, having always traded on the South Korean market, had now stopped doing so because of strict market standards. Refering to Japan, she said that rice must reach 500 criteria of quality to be imported.

 

If exporters violated standards, they faced being penalised, said Pham Van Bay, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Food Association.

 

Deawoo International, a large South Korean rice importer, said Vietnamese exporters should be self-confident in improving the quality of rice exports to successfully enter the South Korean market.

 

Since 2010, domestic rice exporters had achieved significant success in exporting rice to Hong Kong, another strict market often importing Thai rice due to its cheap price and good quality, said Bay.

 

If local exporters received guidance regarding the exportation of high-grade rice, Vietnamese rice could easily enter strict markets, he said. Exporters needed state support in coming to grip with modern trading methods.

 

Viet Nam exported 2.8 million tonnes of rice, valued at US$1.4 billion, during the first four months of 2011. Exports saw a year-on-year increase of 30 per cent in volume and 22.7 per cent in value.

 

Marketing industry heats up

 

Competition in the outdoor and mass media advertising markets has heated up as thousands of firms vie with each other in order to gain a share of the small market pie, according to industry insiders.

 

Dinh Quang Ngu, chairman of the Viet Nam Advertising Association, said that the country currently had more than 5,000 advertising firms, with total revenues reaching around US$1 billion last year.

 

Ngu said that although outdoor advertising only represented 20 per cent of total industry revenue, a large number of firms took part in this sector.

 

As a result, advertising firms have to vie with each other for prime poster positions in order to win contracts. The cost for a poster situated at a cross-roads currently stands at VND700 million (US$33,654) to VND1 billion ($40,077) per year against the previous cost of only VND100-200 million a few years ago.

 

Because of high costs associated with prime positioning, advertising firms made very little profit, which inhibited their development, said Ngu.

 

Much like outdoor advertising, mass media advertising firms are currently locked in unhealthy competition.

 

Nguyen Minh Huong, general director of Golden Communications Group, said that according to international standards, service costs for mass media ads paid to advertising firms often accounted for more than 17 per cent of total contract values. Many domestic advertising firms competed unhealthily to attract customers, however, offering services at decreased costs or just 3 per cent of total contract values.

 

"With such decreased costs, advertising firms have to lower their standards regarding service quality, which has done excessive damage to their images, " said Huong, adding that firms were killing themselves.

 

In order to survive and compete with foreign rivals, who hold most major advertising contracts, domestic advertising firms should unite and come to some sort of agreement regarding advertising prices and service fees. Most domestic advertising firms currently do outsourced work for foreign companies and are only marginally involved in advertising contracts.

 

"Unity amongst domestic advertising firms, especially the major players, is necessary to help the industry develop sustainability and regain its market share from foreign rivals," said Trinh Bich Dung, director of Bac Dau Production Co.

 

Local travel firms raise tour prices

 

Local travel agencies are planning to bump up prices for summer tours from this month after airlines have increased fares by almost 23%.

 

Ta Thi Cam Vinh, outbound manager of Ben Thanh Tourist, told the Daily that her company was considering increasing the cost of tours by 10%. Meanwhile, Vietravel will hike some tour prices by 5%.

 

Nguyen Chung Thuy, PR manager of Lua Viet Tours, explained, “Because airlines have raised fares, we have to adjust up our tour prices accordingly. However, car tours won’t be affected.”

 

This is the second time that local tour operators have put up the cost of tours since April. Thuy said her company was facing difficulties because the price increase would make travelers look elsewhere.

 

In order to attract tourists, travel firms have signed agreements with foreign airlines such as Cambodia’s Angkor Airlines and Asiana Airlines of South Korea to offer promotions.

 

Lua Viet is concentrating on day-tours which tourists can travel easily and cheaply and the key markets, Thuy added.

 

SSC wants auditors to show up at GMs

 

The State Securities Commission (SSC) is collecting feedback on a new draft circular that requires auditors to attend general meetings (GM) of big-sized public companies to help shareholders better understand those companies’ performance.

 

As per the forthcoming requirement, auditors will help enhance transparency in the operations of public companies by explaining to shareholders all those details that are not properly disclosed in financial reports, said an official at SSC.

 

This is a new issue which has not yet been mentioned earlier, said Bui Hoang Hai, deputy head of the listing division at SSC. Under the draft circular, a big-sized public firm must have paid-in capital of at least VND120 billion and the number of shareholders at no fewer than 300.

 

Hai said many foreign experts had insisted that auditors’ presence at general meetings was important and suggested that SSC apply the regulation to all public firms, not only big-sized ones as provided for in the draft circular.

 

However, Vietnam currently has some 1,600 public firms that usually hold general meetings during March to May annually, while the number of auditors in Vietnam is limited so it will be unrealistic to ask auditors to be present at all meetings during a short span of time, Hai said.

 

Therefore, for the time being, SSC considers applying the regulation to only big-sized public companies, he said.

 

A new requirement is that the forthcoming circular will take under its jurisdiction all public companies rather than listed firms only like the current practice. The circular will be issued soon and is expected to take effect in early July, Hai added.

 

The draft circular also sets more stringent requirements regarding transparency at public companies, including information on incomes, resumes and relationships of board members and management staff.

 

“At this time, board members of many companies receive and report benefits from a certain parent company but are not required to report incomes from the company’s subsidiaries. Those details must be disclosed under the new circular,” Hai added.

 

The draft circular is among attempts of the authority to boost transparency in corporate governance, Hai said, adding that to do the job, SSC also needs help from institutional investors in Vietnam.

 

“We hope institutional investors can sit together and agree to invest in only those companies that have or commit to have good corporate governance,” Hai said.

 

The draft circular says corporate governance involves a set of regulations ensuring that a company be oriented and supervised effectively for the benefit of shareholders and other related partners of the company.

 

HCM City hotel development planning underway

 

The tourism authority of HCMC has begun drawing up a plan to build more hotels until 2015 to meet the future demand of travelers.

 

Truong Vinh Tho, head of the Hotel Division of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the plan would include a vision towards 2020.

 

The current hotel rooms are enough to meet the demand of local and foreign visitors to the city but the tourism authority wants to move ahead, Tho said.

 

Many investors are building hotels in the city while others are exploring opportunities to get involved in hotel projects. So the forthcoming hotel development plan will provide much-needed information about the market for investors to make decisions.

 

“We are working with the tourism sector to map out the plan and making projections on local and foreign visitor arrivals in the city in years to come,” Tho said. He added the plan would be ready late this year or early next.

 

The city has 836 hotels with more than 25,000 rooms at the moment. Of these hotels, 596 are of one-star standard with some 9,700 rooms, 167 of two-star standard with more than 6,000 rooms, 47 of three-star standard with nearly 3,700 rooms, 13 of four-star standard with 1,760 rooms and 13 of five-star standard with over 4,200 rooms.

 

Last year saw 3.1 million foreign visitors coming to the city, and the number is forecast to rise to around 3.5 million this year. No projection of local visitor arrivals is available.

 

Tho said the three- to five-star hotels were still doing good business in the city with average room occupancy of around 70% last year. Almost all one- to four-star hotels belong to local investors while foreign investors dominate the five-star hotel segment.

 

However, local investors will supersede foreign ones in the luxury hotel segment with many hi-end hotel expansion and construction projects underway in districts 1, 2 and 7.

 

Saigontourist Holding Company alone will have thousands of additional luxury hotel rooms when its projects are finished.

 

Local shoppers say no to luxury products 

 

Sales at popular shopping centers nationwide are showing signs of falling as rising consumption prices forced local consumers to switch from fancy imported products to domestic ones.

 

Most local consumers tended to say no to luxury commodities and services, the market researcher FTA said in a survey of more than 600 people in three big cities nationwide including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.

 

They paid more attention to promotional packs and discounts, which have been carried out widespread at supermarkets, according to the survey.

 

The number of visitors at popular shopping centers downtown including Tax, Vincom, Parkson and Zen plazas decreased sharply, with sales of fancy fashion shops of Nike, Calvin Klein and Converse showing signs of slumping.

 

A salesperson of a cosmetic product shop at a shopping center in District 1, who asked not to be named, said the amount of shoppers has plummeted around 40-50 percent. He also said that most visitors were those who simply want to avoid the heat outside.

 

Cao Minh Hien, a shopper at the shopping center Parkson Le Thanh Ton in District 1, said she opted for domestic cookware, which would help her “save some money”.

 

“I used to prefer a set of five pots of the US’s Corningware. But given that the consumption prices surging day by day, I switch to buy made-in-Vietnam one to save money for my family,” Hien told Dau Tu Tai Chinh Newspaper.

 

The dropping sales of imported products has seen local shops halt stocking more items and focus solely on selling ones, which were in their inventory before the Lunar New Year holiday.

 

Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the Vietnamese High Quality Goods Club, said local shoppers have switched to domestic products since rising imported taxes pushed up price of foreign-brand products.

 

Consumer prices rose 17.51 percent in April from a year earlier, the most in 28 months, stoked by increases in fuel and electricity prices.

 

Poverty will rise in Vietnam as a result of soaring inflation this year so the government must stay the course on price-busting policies, Thanh Nien News quoted John Hendra, head of the United Nations mission in the country, as saying on Tuesday.

 

A UN study showed that poverty increased by 2.1 per cent after Vietnam's last bout of high inflation in 2008.

 

That year, inflation peaked near 28 per cent in August. Last month, the annual rise in the consumer price index hit 17.5 per cent - its highest level since December 2008 - and it is still going up.

 

Export products need to maintain quality standards 

 

Enterprises need to maintain the quality standards of their products and the Government needs to develop a strategy to promote Vietnamese products abroad, to ensure a sustainable growth in the export sector.

 

Le Quang Dung, deputy director of Saigon Cosmetic Joint Stock Company, emphasizes that quality standards of export goods must be maintained to ensure their demand and value.

 

Mr. Dung said that customers from a rather complacent market like Cambodia have complained about the declining quality of Vietnamese goods. They said the quality of some Vietnamese goods has not been as good as it was when initially it entered the market.

 

Enterprises need to invest in their production to create unique designs and improve quality standards of products, he added.

 

Mr. Dung said he had learnt from his company’s experience that if they invested in new designs, packaging and new fragrance products, they were bound to sell well and at good prices.

 

He said that manufacturers must learn about international quality standards to apply it to their production, to add value to their products.

 

Enterprises that have to import materials to make products need to maintain good relations with importers and take advantage of their support in terms of pricing, he added.

 

Tu Minh Thien, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center, said enterprises need to focus on some products that have a competitive edge, like processed foods, to build a brand name by improving quality standards and design.

 

He added that once these products meet with quality standards, enterprises should tie up with giant trading groups like Metro, Big C and Lotte to bring these Vietnamese goods into the global distribution network.

 

Mr. Dung said in order for Vietnamese enterprises to enter new export markets, the Government should exempt or reduce taxes for them, give them funds to improve production technology and effectively organize promotion and marketing of Vietnamese goods.

 

Relevant agencies must provide exporters with timely updated information on the global market and polices of countries, as well as forecast market situations, he added.

 

Mr. Dung said that enterprises and product associations need to support and help manage enterprises, to prevent local enterprises from competing with each other in terms of export prices.

 

Dr. Pham Quang Dieu from the Vietnam Institute of Economy said ministries and relevant agencies should develop research programs to boost trade of strategic goods and develop production of materials used for making export goods.

 

PV