The Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCMC (Hawa) rolled out a website on January 18, www.gohopphap.com, known as Vietnam’s Legal Wood Database, to support enterprises in searching for all varieties of wood in the country and assisting those selling wooden products.

File photo of wooden furniture on display at an exhibition in HCMC 

Hawa chairman Nguyen Quoc Khanh said the website was designed to update and provide sufficient information about sources of materials, in terms of amount, age and origin, and asserted that the information was highly precise, as it was collected from and compared with numerous sources.

In addition to the launch of the website, Hawa introduced a set of forms, BasicDocs, which was developed based upon documents being used by wood firms. Multiple essential contents and functions were added to the set of forms, such as a bilingual function, aimed to simplify implementation of administrative procedures.

“They are two products aimed for developing the Vietnamese wood market,” Khanh said, adding that Vietnam will soon become a major worldwide hub of interior furniture made from wood of clear origin.

Do Quang Tung, acting head of the national forest management agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, praised the improvements and efforts in the wood sector, saying that the global market is attaching importance to the legality of wood, as requirements of wood trading and consumption become stricter.

As such, Hawa’s new database is expected to ensure the origins of wood and help wood processing enterprises maintain their operations and expand their reach into the global market.

SGT