Creating momentum in regional linkages, activating trade promotion potential

Lack of regional connectivity makes large-scale export difficult

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, production chain linkage and trade promotion have brought many benefits in expanding markets for key products of localities in recent times. To fully exploit the potential and advantages of regional linkages, since the beginning of 2024, the Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) has advised the Ministry of Industry and Trade to coordinate with the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to co-chair the organization of conferences on trade promotion and import-export development in key economic regions.

Through these Programs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade directly participates with localities in each economic region to carry out large-scale trade promotion activities, focusing on export industries and fields with strengths in key export markets. This is also a new direction for trade promotion in 2024, a premise for focused and key trade promotion activities in the coming time.

Assessing the potential and pointing out the challenges of regional linkage in current trade promotion at the seminar "Taking advantage of regional linkage resources in trade promotion" organized by Industry and Trade Magazine on August 26, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy - Deputy Director of the Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that management agencies as well as enterprises are aware of the importance and inevitable trend of joining hands, joining forces, and combining with each other to participate in activities of regional and inter-regional linkage nature. However, there are still many shortcomings when implementing regional linkage in trade promotion.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy - Deputy Director of Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Agency

“We aim to strengthen regional linkage and regional linkage promotion activities. However, there is no large enough location to gather a large number of businesses from many different regions to participate, especially now that on the world map, Vietnam is considered a “Hub” – a very large supply center of the world for many products and goods such as rice, coffee, cashew nuts…”, Ms. Thuy emphasized.

In addition, according to Ms. Thuy, trade promotion resources from central to local levels are also very low. For example, the cost of sending businesses to foreign markets to participate in fairs and exhibitions is very high. Only the "big guys" are willing to spend money, but for small businesses, this is a difficult problem that requires careful calculation.

Overview of the seminar "Taking advantage of regional linkage resources in trade promotion"

In addition, the connection between central and local trade promotion agencies is still loose. Therefore, many activities are fragmented, overlapping, and have not combined resources for common activities.

Therefore, according to Ms. Thuy, in the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will develop a plan for localities to organize larger-scale foreign trade delegations, bringing more valuable products to foreign markets, creating a higher communication effect for businesses.

Support from trade promotion support model

Sharing about the current advantages and difficulties, from the local perspective, Mr. Dinh Lam Sang - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Kan province said that in recent years, especially in 2023 and the first months of 2024, the trade promotion of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Kan has done quite well, especially creating conditions for businesses and cooperatives, entities with products that meet OCOP standards to have direct and indirect contact through the connection of the Industry and Trade sector between the provinces so that they can learn and exchange products, thereby they have connections with each other in consuming goods.

Mr. Dinh Lam Sang - Deputy Director of Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Kan province

“Building OCOP product introduction and sales points is not only in our province but also in multiple provinces, which means that goods in our area will be available at OCOP product sales points in other provinces. On the contrary, OCOP products from other provinces will be available at sales points and product introduction points in our province to increase the exchange of goods and meet the needs of the people,” Mr. Sang emphasized.

In particular, Mr. Sang cited examples such as mountainous areas needing goods from the lowlands, rural areas needing goods from outside urban areas, or especially mountainous areas needing OCOP products from coastal areas such as Hai Phong and Quang Ninh, etc. This is one of the guiding policies of the provincial leaders to link and direct trade promotion to link regions and exchange goods between regions.

From a business perspective, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Van, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Director of Huong Van Tra Cooperative, also believes that if we do not connect and use the right "bundle of chopsticks" method, we will never go far.

“A commercial playground needs good facilities, because when all the products are gathered, large-scale commercial centers are needed to bring products from other provinces together. There, they can choose all the products from regions and provinces with absolute peace of mind. Because in the commercial center, all the new high-quality products are present, people can buy products from all places and provinces wherever they go. That is the most convenient thing, meeting the current needs of customers now”, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Van expressed.

Agreeing with this view, Mr. Sang also said: "Business entities and cooperatives are in great need of financial mechanisms, specifically loans, especially in remote areas, where seasonal goods are in great need of loans."

The Deputy Director of the Export Support Center said that next year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will test a new regional trade promotion support model. That is the model of organizing trade delegations abroad on a regional scale (Winning with Vietnam).

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a plan for localities to jointly organize larger-scale foreign trade delegations, bringing more valuable products to foreign markets, creating a higher communication effect for businesses. This will be one of the key activities in supporting regional trade promotion that the Ministry of Industry and Trade will implement in 2025.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/tao-luc-trong-lien-ket-vung-kich-hoat-tiem-nang-xuc-tien-thuong-mai-341600.html