A potential market
The High Quality Vietnamese Goods Fair 2002 for the Mekong
Delta will be held from March 8-13 in Long Xuyen Town, An
Giang Province. Some 150 businesses will participate in the
event, displaying their wares at 500 booths, nearly double the
turnout at a similar fair in 2000. A number of businesses think that
Cambodia could be a potential market for their goods.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Nhi, chairman of An Giang Province People's Committee:
Vietnamese goods have a strong potential for export to Cambodia.
After the High Quality Vietnamese Goods Fair 2000, Vietnamese goods,
mainly those of high quality goods producers, exported to Cambodia last
year via An Giang Province reached US$100 million. This is a positive sign.
An Giang borders Ta Keo and Can Dan provinces of Cambodia. It has Vinh
Xuong as a waterway border gate and Tinh Bien as an overland border
gate, in addition to many other roads and river ways which are some 100
km from Phnom Penh.
During our recent meeting with the chiefs of the two Cambodian provinces,
we have invited representatives from the Cambodian Trade Promotion
Center and local officials to join the fair to have a chance to meet
Vietnamese businesses. The Cambodian side is keen to cooperate in
business and to see Vietnamese goods sell better in Cambodia. After this
fair, I will lead a mission of officials and businesses in An Giang to
Cambodia to sign business deals. So, the fair this year in An Giang is not
only an opportunity for businesses to expand market in the rural area of the
Southwestern region but also a chance to boost export to Cambodia.
We will create the most favorable conditions for businesses outside An
Giang to operate here. For example, we will help them establish
warehouses at border gates to export their products to Cambodia quickly.
We will also help them develop production facilities here to reduce
transport cost because apart from high quality, their goods must be
cheaper to be able to compete with Thai products.
Mr. Nguyen Thai Hung, director of Tay
Do Garment: Ready to cooperate with
Cambodian partners.
Tay Do Garment specializes in making
export garments. So, we are ready to
cooperate with Cambodian partners. If
we can reach deals with Cambodian
partners at this fair, we will send them
goods immediately after the fair.
Recently, we have exported two monthly containers of trousers and shirts
worth US$60,000 each to the U.S. We guarantee that the quality of our
products in the home market is the same as those for export. We will
continue to expand market by going from small provinces to big
commercial centers. We hope to sell 6,000 pairs of trousers at this fair.
Shirt
sales are expected to increase 50% over the last fair. In recent years, our
sales in southwestern provinces have risen 50% annually.
Fighting illegal and fake goods
Mr. Tran Quyet Thang, chief of An Giang Province's
Market Management Bureau:
We plan to spend VND10 million setting up a booth at
this fair to display genuine products and fakes as a
way to help consumers distinguish between them. An
Thai noodle was once exported to Cambodia but now
it is imitated there and then imported back into Vietnam.
Last year, the provincial leaders had working sessions
with leaders of some Cambodian provinces to discuss
some regulations on import-export, customs and
exchange information on smuggling.
However,
stronger measures are needed to fight this practice. We hope the fair this
year will help consumers distinguish between genuine and fake products.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, chief of An Giang Province
Customs:
At present, Vietnamese goods, especially aluminum
items, household plastics, construction materials, food
and vegetables at border markets, are sold to
Cambodia in large quantities. I think high-quality
Vietnamese goods should be cheaper to export more
to Cambodia. A number of products sold well at a
recent fair at the Tinh Bien Border Economic Zone
thanks to price reduction.
By Huynh Kim - The Saigon Times Weekly - March 09, 2002.
|