Foreign customers visit a furniture showroom (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Furniture companies and industries inSoutheast Asia should pool their strengths and enhance cooperation to achieveprosperity and sustainability, a forum heard in Ho Chi Minh City on November27.
Delegates at the "ASEAN Market Attraction" forum organised byHandicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (HAWA) and the ASEANFurniture Industry Council (AFIC) agreed that the region boasts many greatadvantages in terms of materials, production, design, distribution and marketsize in wood and furniture processing.
Last year, the regional countries exported 12.1 billion USD worth of woodenfurniture out of the global total of 150 billion USD, with the US, Europe,Japan, Korea, and Canada being their main markets.
Nguyen Quoc Khanh, HAWA chairman, said Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand,and the Philippines are fast growing furniture suppliers with two-thirds oftheir production prioritised for export.
Their export to production ratio is more than double the global average ofaround 30 percent with Southeast Asia's wood and furniture exports meeting 5percent of demand in the US and 2 percent in Western Europe, he said.
Nguyen Xuan Thuy, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’sIndustry Development Centre, said with a population of over 600 million, rapideconomic growth and increasing income, Southeast Asia is a huge market withhigh demand and purchasing power.
“But intra-regional trade is still low compared to the potential. A lot ofthings are needed to improve [this].”
Khanh said: “While the ASEAN market is obviously large, the question is how toenable Vietnamese and regional enterprises to exploit that potential? The mostconvincing answer is creating a ‘Cooperation - Link – Alliance’ model betweenVietnamese enterprises and between businesses and associations in the region.
“Vietnam's wood industry is leading the region in terms of potential, but mostbusinesses only focus on their own interests, brands and products withoutseeing the great benefits of building an industry brand.
“ASEAN countries compete with each other. Therefore, a larger common goal isneeded to create cohesion, consensus and cooperation for mutual prosperity.
“A combination of everyone’s strengths and alliances with regional partnerswill create a value chain in the wood industry.”
Cooperation in the regional wood industry should be based on the potential ofcountries and the strategy of enterprises, he said.
There should be vertical links between strong producers like Vietnam,Indonesia, Laos, and Myanmar and those strong in trade, design and serviceslike Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, he said.
The horizontal links should be between AFIC member associations in strategicorientations and alliances for sustainable development of the industry, hesaid.
With the impact of the US-China trade war, many buyers have shifted theirorders from China to Southeast Asia.
In the first seven months of this year, Chinese wooden furniture and furnitureexports to the US fell by 18.3 percent year-on-year to 14.3 billion USD.
Khanh said: “Most US and European customers want to source goods from outsideChina, and this is a great opportunity for AFIC to have a common vision andundertake activities to seize this valuable opportunity and enhance theposition of the region.
“We should link to supplement each other and become stronger to counterbalanceand compete in other production markets such as China and Europe.”
Emmanuel Padiernos, president of AFIC, said in addition to gathering twice ayear, “We have started organising trade missions to each other countries. Ithink trade missions play a very important role in developing intra-ASEAN tradeacross different segments.”
Delegates also suggested that Vietnamese and ASEAN businesses should embracedigital transformation to better meet customers’ demands and promoteconsumption of their products since customer buying behaviours and expectationshave changed dramatically.
Tran Viet Tien of HAWA said the ASEAN wood industry has been respondingpositively to changes in global markets by introducing national mechanisms andpolicies and changes in business and production activities at the enterpriselevel.
“The highest and consistent goal of the ASEAN Market Attraction forum is topromote and support links between Vietnamese enterprises and between regionalenterprises and alliances between member associations for a prosperous andsustainable ASEAN wood industry.”/.
VNA
