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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.