Vietnamese booths at the HCM City Trade – Service – Tourism Exhibition in Savannakhet, Laos, last year (Photo courtesy of ITPC)HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi MinhCity’s Investment and Trade Promotion Centre will organise the second HCM CityTrade-Service-Tourism Promotion Conference in Savannakhet, Laos, in October tohelp Vietnamese businesses tap the Lao market and enhance co-operation betweenthe two countries, a workshop heard on August 28.
According to Pham Thiet Hoa, director of thecentre, several promotions to encourage collaboration between Vietnamese andLaos enterprises had been launched in HCM City and Laos in recent years.
They included the Laos Goods Week held in HCMCity last January and the 2018 Vietnam-Laos Trade Fair in the Lao capitalVientiane in July.
Last year, the centre held the first conferenceshowcasing HCM City-made products in Savannakhet, Laos, which attracted morethan 100 Vietnamese and 25 Lao enterprises who signed 50 contracts and fourMemorandum of Understandings.
This year it will organise a similar event fromOctober 19 to 26 at the same location.
Hoa said participating enterprises would befully subsidised for booths, decor, freight and import tax payable for theevent.
According to the General Department of VietnamCustoms, trade between Vietnam and Laos was worth 522.2 million USD in thefirst half of 2018, a 14.5 percent increase year-on-year.
Vietnam mainly exports steel and iron products,cement, plastic products, electrical cables, and fruit and vegetables. It buysfertilisers, wood and wooden products, ores and minerals from Laos.
Figures from the Ministry of Planning andInvestment’s Foreign Investment Agency show that Laos is the biggest of Vietnam’s24 foreign investment destinations.
In the first five months of this year Vietnam’sinvestment in Laos was worth 80.12 million USD, or 43.4 percent of its totalforeign investment.
Somxay Sanamoune, Lao Consul General in HCMCity, said the Lao government always encouraged and gave priority to Vietnameseinvestment.
“The two countries are very close in terms ofgeography, which is a great advantage to boosting cross-border trade,export-import activities and exchange of workers.”
He said Laos had great potential waiting to betapped by Vietnamese businesses including industrial crops, mining, mineralprocessing and agri-forestry products, among others.
He said to attract foreign investment, the Lao governmenthad reduced red tape and the time required to set up new businesses, cuttariffs and invested in infrastructure.
A survey conducted by the centre at last year’strade event found there was a big market in Laos for Vietnamese products,especially mid-priced goods.
Products that were popular at the event wereelectrical and mechanical domestic appliances, food, snacks and processedfoods, and textile and apparel.
Le Tan Minh, deputy head of the centre’s tradepromotion department, said Vietnamese businesses should pay attention topackaging to attract Lao consumers.
Businesses should also consider earmarking somespace for consumers, especially young people, to take photos since they werefond of sharing them on social media, and this would help publicise the event,he added.
According to Nguyen Quoc Dung, CEO of the Sai GonPlant Protection Joint Stock Company which has been selling its products inLaos, Vietnamese enterprises who wanted to tap the Lao market should firstensure they had a licence and their products were registered.
“You have to show your business registrationcertificate or at least have a big agent in Laos who can represent you in orderto meet with a business there.”
He said for products like crop protectionchemicals and fertilisers, enterprises should make samples and hold workshopsto convince consumers of the quality of their products.
Besides, it was very important to have productinformation and instructions on the packaging in Lao, he added.-VNS/VNA
VNA
