Opportunities explored at fair for foreign buyers and supporting industry suppliers
Opportunities explored at fair for foreign buyers and supporting industry suppliers
As part of ongoing efforts to integrate local firms with global value chains, a sourcing fair for supporting industries and buyers, launched in HCMC on September 11, attracted some 25 foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises and 70 supporting industry firms seeking cooperation opportunities.
The two-day event, organized by the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade in coordination with other units, features 300 one-on-one meetings between the FDI firms and local supporting industry manufacturers to exchange information and explore cooperation opportunities.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fair, Nguyen Phuong Dong, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Trade, noted that this year’s event, which concludes today, September 12, will focus on seeking suppliers in the electronics, automobile, aviation and mechanical engineering sectors.
Over 220 electronic accessories and products in these sectors are on display at the fair.
The event includes a conference to seek suppliers for supporting industries, a seminar, a field trip to enterprises’ factories and an exhibition of typical supporting industry products.
Dong stated that the event last year had positive results, with the participation of 17 FDI firms and 80 supporting industry enterprises.
Following the 2018 fair, many supporting industry firms noted that 36.4% of buyers had asked for price lists of products and 47.5% of them expressed the desire to visit the production facilities.
Besides this, 85.8% of them agreed to continue meeting and exchanging information.
Nguyen Duong Hieu, general director and chairman of Lidovit Industrial and Trading JSC, remarked that the event plays an important role in connecting local firms as suppliers and buyers, opening up more opportunities for local supporting industry enterprises to deepen their integration with global value chains.
Hieu stressed that Vietnamese firms aiming to supply products to global firms must restructure their management systems, invest in equipment and technology and focus on environmental issues to meet buyers’ strict requirements.
The renovation of products will help enhance competitiveness as Vietnam’s supporting industry firms are struggling to compete with foreign suppliers, mainly Chinese firms supplying cheap products, Hieu said.
