A face mask production line at Vinatex. Many Vietnamese brands have affirmed their reputation amid COVID-19. (Photo: hanoimoi.vn)

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in 2008 agreed to mark April 20 every year as Vietnam Brand Day, with an aim to honour and promote the nation’s brand and image in the context of international economic integration.

However, the ministry and the National Brand Council decided not to hold the commemorative activities this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anh in the letter said that the country has maintained high and sustainable economic growth. Last year, Vietnam achieved impressive GDP growth of 7.02 percent, surpassing the set target by the National Assembly and bringing the economy scale to more than 262 billion USD – the highest level so far.

The achievement was partly attributed by the Vietnamese business community to build brands and reputation for the country’s goods and services to the regional and global levels.

However, the novel coronavirus outbreak has had impacts on the global economy in general and Vietnam in particular, especially production, business, investment and trade activities.

Anh therefore expected that the business community should maintain unity to surpass the difficulties and stabilising production as soon as possible. Meanwhile, they should maintain and protect their brand names, contributing to enhance the Vietnamese trademark in the global supply chain.

The ministry has given support to firms in building, developing and improving their brand names, thus creating momentum for export activities and boosting production after the pandemic.

Many local companies found opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic to gradually affirm their brand names both in domestic and global markets.

For example, VNPT e-learning has provided a programme to nearly 12,000 schools nationwide with more than 400,000 teacher accounts and five million student accounts.

Meanwhile, many garment and textile companies, such as Vinatex and TNG, have affirmed their brands with face mask products in the local market and export to other countries.

Though the country now has 97 firms recognised as national brands out of 700,000, the number of such enterprises has been on the rise, showing their increasing interest in the programme.

Last year, the world’s leading independent brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance said Vietnam National Brand was valued at 247 billion USD./.VNS