5 projects supported with tens of thousands of USD to improve export competitiveness

Connecting trade between the Central Highlands and the Central region with export enterprises and trade promotion organizations. Retail giants "give tips" for Central Highlands and Central region products to enter supermarkets.

On the morning of May 12, in Da Nang city, the Trade Promotion Agency - Ministry of Industry and Trade held a Conference to announce the results of the first round of funding and invite proposals for the second round of funding, within the framework of the Innovation and Competitiveness Support Program (ICG Program) under Component 3, Vietnam Trade Policy and Export Promotion Project funded by the Swiss Government.

5 dự án được hỗ trợ hàng chục nghìn USD nâng cao năng lực cạnh tranh xuất khẩu

Director of the Trade Promotion Agency Vu Ba Phu said that the SwissTrade project is a program to support the improvement of international competitiveness and export competitiveness for Vietnamese small and medium enterprises.

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Mr. Vu Ba Phu - Director of the Trade Promotion Agency said that the "Vietnam Trade Policy and Export Promotion Project funded by the Swiss Government" (hereinafter referred to as the SwissTrade Project) is a 4-year trade technical assistance program (from 2021-2024) funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) with the aim of supporting Vietnam to achieve sustainable, inclusive economic growth and reduce poverty through enhancing trade activities and enhancing the international competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises through improving favorable framework conditions for import and export development, strengthening public-private dialogue mechanisms and developing a dynamic ecosystem to support export promotion.

The project has 3 components, including supporting the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop a goods import strategy; assessing the current status of implementing public-private dialogue forums; developing and implementing a program to support innovation and competition to improve export competitiveness for small and medium enterprises.

In particular, the Trade Promotion Agency was assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to implement activities under component 3 of the SwissTrade Project, which focuses on developing and implementing the “Innovation and Competitiveness Support Program – abbreviated as the ICG program” with the aim of enhancing export service capacity, through funding for Business Support Organization (BSO) Sub-projects in both the public and private sectors. The ICG program is expected to fund 10-15 Sub-projects, selected through a competitive process and implemented through 3 rounds of project proposal submissions. The maximum funding scale is 150,000 USD/Sub-project for a period of 12-24 months.

The ICG program started in July 2022. Through the selection and interview process, the Project Management Board, the Trade Promotion Agency and experts selected 5 units to receive funding in the first phase from the ICG program.

At the Conference, the Trade Promotion Agency announced a list of 5 sub-projects eligible to be selected for funding, including: Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association in collaboration with MVV Education Joint Stock Company with the proposed project "Intensive consulting program applying technology to enhance export competitiveness for small and medium enterprises in and outside the textile and garment industry in Vietnam"; Research Institute for Organization and Digital Economy (RIDE) with the proposal "Digital assistant for physical labeling and electronic labeling for Vietnamese food exported to the EU market"; Hanoi Young Entrepreneurs Association in collaboration with Smart Hub Joint Stock Company proposed "Smart export of Vietnamese food and beverages (TASTY Vietnam); Vietnam Handicraft Export Association proposed "Promoting green trade through digital transformation"; Technology Business Incubation Center - University of Science and Technology cooperates with MIDEAS Technology Joint Stock Company with the proposed project "Smart virtual assistant solution for automatic answering for the Trade Promotion Agency and trade promotion enterprises".

The Department of Trade Promotion introduces the process, procedures, and criteria for submitting applications for funding for the second round of the innovation and competition support program.

Also at the program, the Trade Promotion Agency "Announcement of invitation to submit proposals for funding for the 2nd Innovation and Competition Support Program" and documents guiding the process, procedures and criteria of the Program.

It is expected that the ICG Program will continue to fund 8-10 Sub-projects for potential partners to implement initiatives to support the promotion of the export promotion ecosystem. The proposed participants are trade support units and organizations from the public, private sectors, and non-governmental organizations in Vietnam, operating in the fields of trade support, trade promotion, export promotion, and providing services to small and medium-sized enterprises to increase exports in both scale and quality.

In the second phase, the ICG Program will receive expressions of interest and preliminary proposals from potential organizations and units from May 16, 2023 to June 16, 2023. The results of the selection of Sub-projects eligible for funding according to the ICG Program criteria are expected to be announced in September 2023.

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