Finding ways to expand the Southern market for Quang Nam products

This program is part of the 2nd Quang Nam Creative Startup Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, within the framework of the Quang Nam Fellow Countrymen Festival in Ho Chi Minh City in 2024. Attending were Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Quang Buu, Mr. Mai Phuc - Chairman of the Quang Nam Fellow Countrymen Association (YAO) in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Dinh Viet Hoa - Chairman of the National Startup Association, along with representatives of provincial departments and branches, leaders of the Quang Nam Executive Committee in Ho Chi Minh City, representatives of foreign startup businesses and experts, and nearly 100 Quang Nam startup entities.

Quang Nam startups need to create product stories that are attractive enough to customers. Photo: PHAN VINH

Creating the Southern Market

Speaking at the opening of the forum, Mr. Pham Ngoc Sinh - Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology, Head of the Steering Committee for Supporting Innovative Startups in Quang Nam Province, said that the strength to build a local startup ecosystem is local resources (natural resources, cultural resources) that create competitive advantages. Market demand is shifting to using products and services that not only meet basic requirements but also want to own other intangible factors, such as local culture, the story behind those products and services.

View of the National Startup Forum Linking the development of the startup ecosystem in Quang Nam. Photo: PHAN VINH

After the success of the first Quang Nam Startup Festival in Ho Chi Minh City - 2021, due to some objective reasons such as the epidemic, economic crisis..., today, Quang Nam continues to organize the second Startup Festival here with the desire to bring products to introduce to fellow countrymen, businesses, and distributors in the South.

In fact, from the events connecting and promoting trade in Ho Chi Minh City, many Quang Nam products have reached the world market, to major countries such as the US, China, Japan, Korea, West Asia... Including Ba Ba Hoi products, Bao Linh coconut cake, Best One noni, agarwood...

[VIDEO] - Mr. Pham Ngoc Sinh shared about the purpose of Quang Nam coordinating with other units to organize the National Startup Forum in Ho Chi Minh City this time:

"At today's forum, with startup experts and businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, we affirm that Quang Nam people are very open-minded, startups and OCOP subjects sitting here really want to listen to knowledge, forecasts and practical requirements about the Southern market to complete their startup projects and products. Quang Nam products are introduced here with the desire to find a wider market, creating a foundation to move towards larger orders and larger contracts" - Mr. Sinh affirmed.

Businesses need to pay attention to communication to create a market in the South. Photo: PHAN VINH

Mr. Mai Phuc - Chairman of Quang Nam Association in Ho Chi Minh City said that the press and businesses have a parallel relationship. Businesses need the press to promote products and strategic communication to promote business development. Conversely, the press also needs businesses, an official information channel about the market and economy to have accurate works and timely information to the public. Through research, Vietnam currently has more than 1 million startups, small and medium enterprises, but this group is the group that is least interested in the field of communication, they think that because they are small, they do not need communication and this is a wrong thought.

[VIDEO] - Mr. Mai Phuc shares about the need for businesses to do communication in the Southern market:

"The press has been providing a lot of important information to help businesses grasp and update market trends or customer psychology. And the media in general and the press in particular will bring Quang Nam's startup products to large markets without spending too much on marketing. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City, if in the past, businesses wanted to bring their products in, they had to spend a lot of money on renting premises, personnel, marketers... But with the media, this cost is almost very low. This is the best way to bring products to penetrate the Southern market as well as the international market" - Mr. Phuc said.

Changing leadership thinking

Professor KenBay - Founder of Singapore Sales Voice Company believes that Vietnam is having a fairly fast population rejuvenation rate, the number of young people in the future of Vietnam will be very high compared to other countries in the region. Therefore, for the country to develop, it is necessary to focus on supplementing knowledge for young people, they will be future leaders with some unique characteristics such as technology understanding, high education level, value orientation, their strengths are digital transformation, innovation, entrepreneurship. In particular, they have high expectations about the balance between work and life.

Professor KenBay presented research on the Vietnamese market at the forum. Photo: PHAN VINH

"Vietnam has great strengths in tourism, technology, stable GDP growth, while the world economy is in recession, Vietnam still grows by 6.5%. Young population and relatively low setup costs, competitive labor costs will be competitive advantages of the Vietnamese market in the future. Therefore, we need to focus on investing in the young generation of entrepreneurs, creating a business culture, a startup culture. Create conditions for technology to develop, focus on creativity, change the leadership mindset for young entrepreneurs" - Mr. KenBay shared.

Dr. Dinh Viet Hoa - Chairman of the National Startup Association said, first of all, businesses must believe in their products. Continuously think and consider what domestic and international customers need, how to make customers remember their products. During the entire process of production and bringing products to market, that circle must always reach customers, not just customers as the destination of the product.

Dr. Dinh Viet Hoa suggests that businesses need to change their leadership mindset to take their products further. Photo: PHAN VINH

Sharing the same opinion with Dr. Dinh Viet Hoa, Mr. Doan Thien Viet - Head of Foreign Affairs Department of Southern Business Association of QNB added that startups need to reposition their products in relation to which customer group and choose how to communicate the story towards customers. There are many successful Vietnamese brands in the world from stories such as Banh Mi Xin Chao of a fellow countryman Dai Loc in Japan or the snakehead fish noodle soup product in the US...

Quang Nam businesses can connect with Quang Nam entrepreneurs in the South to receive support in market development. Photo: PHAN VINH

"I have been working in the Southern market for many years and am looking for start-up products and OCOP products from Quang Nam to invest in and develop together, bringing them to larger markets. In the past few days, we have been going to each booth in the festival but have not found a product that really makes us feel interested enough even though we have asked questions, listened and observed very carefully.

"Businesses need to be more confident, travel more, and connect more with the brothers in the Southern Business Association QNB to get support. The Quang Nam business community in the South is relatively strong to be able to support and help home-grown businesses put their products on the shelves of chain systems, and even export internationally," said Mr. Viet.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/tim-huong-mo-rong-thi-truong-phia-nam-cho-san-pham-quang-nam-3138197.html