Product promotion activities at the 7th Conference of Industry and Trade of 5 Central Cities - 2024 held in Can Tho City.
Pillar role
During the 2021-2025 period, the Trade Promotion Agency has actively and effectively assumed the pivotal role of the national focal point for the entire trade promotion network of Vietnam. As a coordinating focal point, the Trade Promotion Agency has actively presided over and coordinated with units to carry out hundreds of diverse trade promotion events each year, as well as provided platform services, market information and organized training courses to improve trade promotion capacity for civil servants, officials performing trade promotion work and businesses. In particular, the Trade Promotion Agency has demonstrated its strategic vision by proactively building a Development Framework for digital transformation (Decision 1968/2021/QD-TTg) to develop modern forms of trade promotion such as digital-based trade promotion and green trade promotion, to help businesses adapt to new trends in global trade.
In 2024, the Department of Trade Promotion will actively implement international cooperation activities to promote cooperation, establish and promote relations with international trade promotion organizations and foreign trade promotion agencies as a foundation for promoting trade between Vietnam and partner countries, supporting Vietnamese enterprises in finding partners, penetrating and expanding markets... The work of promoting and developing national brands and product brands with geographical indications for potential export products of Vietnam will be implemented by the Department of Trade Promotion with many specific activities within the framework of the Vietnam National Brand Program and the Program to support registration of trademarks and geographical indications for potential export products of Vietnam abroad. In addition, the Department of Trade Promotion also focuses on promoting the application of information technology and digital transformation in trade promotion work; organizing activities to improve trade promotion capacity on digital platforms for localities, enterprises and cooperatives; Support promotion and product introduction on e-commerce platforms...
In Can Tho City, trade promotion activities are also implemented in a diverse and flexible manner, effectively supporting businesses and industries in connecting supply and demand in the domestic market; promoting existing markets, while exploiting and expanding to find new markets. In addition to direct trade connection activities, the Can Tho Investment - Trade Promotion and Exhibition Center (Center) also connects trade through supporting businesses in applying digital platforms, especially large, reputable platforms with high effects in connecting markets and partners such as Alibaba, TikTok, etc.
The Center also focuses on promptly providing information to businesses on policies, regulations, trends, needs and market opportunities, and product lines through various forms such as attending and inviting businesses to attend a series of trade promotion conferences with the Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad on a monthly basis; providing updated information on the foreign market situation, recommendations in trade promotion that agencies, organizations and businesses need to pay attention to. At the same time, the Center also invites businesses to participate in export market consultation sessions organized by the Trade Promotion Department; attending events, conferences, seminars, training courses on trade promotion, introducing export market opportunities from many large and small markets of Vietnam, focusing on markets that have FTAs with Vietnam so that businesses can quickly take advantage of incentives from FTAs in expanding markets and finding partners.
Change to adapt
In the 2021-2025 period, Vietnam's export turnover will grow by an average of 10.5% per year, reaching more than 370 billion USD by 2024. Activities such as exhibitions, trade delegations and market information support have supported thousands of businesses, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the report "Trade promotion in the 2021-2025 period and some strategic orientations and trade promotion plans for the 2026-2030 period" pointed out many limitations of the traditional model, mainly focusing on direct forms such as fairs and seminars, leading to low efficiency and lack of flexibility.
According to the TPCI (Trade Promotion Capacity Index) assessing 52 associations and trade promotion centers in 2024, the average score for digital transformation was only 42%, the lowest among the 6 pillars of capacity. Most units only stopped at the "plan on paper" level, lacking in-depth software applications (25%) and the rate of supporting businesses to participate in digital activities (36%). Data management is also weak, with an average score of 46%, leading to a lack of a unified national database, causing market information to be fragmented and slow to update. Limited human resources in digital skills, foreign languages and understanding of international markets (score 59.6%) further aggravate the problem.
The report also stated that in some associations, the industry also revealed many limitations such as uneven capacity, great dependence on individual leaders and industry scale, common is lack of funding and lack of specialized staff; slow innovation in operating methods, mainly focusing on traditional activities such as fairs and exhibitions. In addition, almost no association has proactively built a database of industry and markets, while this is a big requirement from international contacts; the connection between associations with each other and with local trade promotion centers is still loose.
At the Trade Offices, the limitations are the lack of human resources, funding, common databases, and ineffective two-way coordination. From the business side, there is still a fear of change, a lack of investment in digital trade promotion, and many shortcomings in internal capacity in research and development, production, green transformation, as well as market information research and participation in trade promotion. Meanwhile, outdated policies and mechanisms have not kept up with trends, causing difficulties in implementation...
According to experts, these limitations not only reduce the effectiveness of trade promotion, but also prevent Vietnamese enterprises from participating deeply in the global value chain. The shift from traditional trade promotion to integrated, multi-platform trade promotion is inevitable for Vietnam to maintain export growth momentum in the new context. The 4.0 industrial revolution makes traditional trade promotion activities obsolete, while digital platforms such as virtual fairs, virtual reality technology and AI data analysis help optimize customer access, reduce costs and increase personalization.
The 2021-2025 Trade Promotion Report proposed a 2026-2030 Trade Promotion Plan with an estimated budget of more than VND 1,000 billion, focusing on 5 main areas:
Firstly, promote trade by priority industries such as electronics, textiles - footwear, food, wood, information technology, logistics and environmental goods;
Second, support market diversification, with a focus on African, Latin American and Halal markets, through buyer insights and connections;
Third, develop the national trade promotion network, enhance the role of foreign trade offices and local centers;
Fourth, improve the proactive capacity of the industry and localities through training in digital and green transformation;
Fifth, innovate the national trade promotion program, from spreading to focusing on depth, prioritizing leading enterprises and linking industry chains.
Article and photos: KHANH NAM
Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/tich-hop-da-nen-tang-trong-hoat-dong-xuc-tien-thuong-mai-a190107.html
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