ITA and OpportunItaly help Italian companies access Vietnam market

ITA and OpportunItaly help Italian companies access Vietnam market

ProPak Vietnam 2026, held from March 31 to April 2, in Ho Chi Minh City, by the Italian Trade Agency in collaboration with the Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association, is showcasing leading Italian companies in packaging, processing, and related technologies.

Through 15 Italian Trade Agency (ITA) booths at the exhibition, Vietnamese enterprises are being introduced to advanced and sustainable machinery and technological solutions from Italy, offering opportunities to enhance production efficiency and better meet international standards.

Alessandra Tognonato, consul general of Italy in Ho Chi Minh City, said that Vietnam was increasingly affirming its role as a strategic partner of Italy in Southeast Asia, with strong cooperation potential across a wide range of sectors, from industry to consumer markets.

“In the context of continuously shifting global trade, strengthening effective business connectivity mechanisms between the two countries plays an important role in boosting bilateral economic relations in a sustainable and long-term manner,” said Tognonato.

According to Tognonato, beyond high-quality and competitive cost, Italy’s core competitive advantage lies in its ability to deliver customisation and localisation, transforming European technology into solutions tailored to local products.

“For Italian companies operating in Vietnam, the packaging machinery sector still offers substantial potential. Italy is currently the global leader in this field and the largest European Union exporter to Vietnam in packaging machinery," she said.

"Visiting the exhibition today, I can clearly see strong potential for further business connections. Many Italian companies have proactively adapted their products to suit the Vietnamese market. Who would imagine that an Italian company could specialise in packaging tropical fruits?”

At the event, ITA also directly provided consultations for businesses seeking to explore and participate in OpportunItaly, an international business promotion platform jointly developed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy and ITA, with the primary objective of helping more than 20,000 Italian companies and entrepreneurs expand into international markets and establish practical business partnerships.

OpportunItaly has been developed as a comprehensive business connectivity hub, helping more than 20,000 Italian companies and entrepreneurs expand into international markets

OpportunItaly has identified Vietnam as one of its 20 strategic markets, alongside other developed Asian markets such as China/Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore.

Beyond the packaging and processing industry - which is the focus of ProPak Vietnam - OpportunItaly also provides market insights and access to potential partners across 10 strategic sectors of ‘Made in Italy’, including machinery, automotive, sustainability and energy, aerospace, design and furniture, agri-food, fashion, wellness... This creates significant room for collaboration between Vietnamese and Italian enterprises, spanning both traditional industries and advanced industrial sectors.

A distinctive feature of OpportunItaly lies in its digital platform, OpportunItaly, which has been developed as a comprehensive business connectivity hub.

Through the platform, Vietnamese enterprises can access a wide range of business support tools, including export guidance, strategic resources such as market reports, curated partnership opportunities, and greater visibility to connect flexibly with thousands of companies and participate in global supply chains.

The programme also features the exclusive OpportunItaly Buyers Club, allowing buyers to join personalised meetings with trade analysts during international trade fairs where ITA has official pavilions, while also receiving priority access to selected invitations for major trade events in Italy.

Ilaria Piccinni, Trade Commissioner to Vietnam said that Vietnamese enterprises were increasingly focused on enhancing production standards and aligning with international benchmarks, while Italy is home to several industries that lead in quality across Europe.

“Through the combination of on-site trade promotion activities such as ProPak Vietnam and the digital platform OpportunItaly, we aim to support Vietnamese businesses in more easily accessing suitable Italian partners, while effectively leveraging the excellence of ‘Made in Italy’,” Piccinni said.

She added that sectors with high innovation content also offer significant potential, including technology, innovation, renewable energy, and the low-altitude economy.

“Italy has strong advantages in advanced technology, research and innovation capacity, outstanding design excellence, ranging from furniture and jewellery to yacht, as well as very high standards in quality and sustainability. These strengths are highly compatible with the Vietnamese market, which is characterised by a dynamic manufacturing base and a young generation of increasingly demanding consumers,” she said

“We are also seeing a growing number of Italian companies viewing Vietnam as a strategic manufacturing hub. The two economies are highly complementary. For example, Italian packaging machinery can help Vietnamese enterprises improve production standards, particularly in sustainability, enabling them to meet export requirements in markets with stringent environmental and ESG standards.”

Italian booths at ProPak Vietnam 2026 held in Ho Chi Minh City from March 31 to April 2

OpportunItaly’s presence at ProPak Vietnam 2026 reflected the importance of the Vietnamese market to Italian businesses in the packaging industry, as well as in a wide range of other promising manufacturing sectors, while broadening opportunities for future trade cooperation between enterprises from the two countries.

According to ITA, Italy’s packaging machinery industry is currently on a strong growth trajectory and ranks among the world’s leading sectors.

In 2024, the industry generated revenue of €10 billion, with exports accounting for around 80 per cent of total turnover, while Asia remained its second-largest market after the European Union.

Italian manufacturers of automatic packaging machinery have established a solid and stable position in Vietnam thanks to the advanced technology and high quality of their solutions, the strong level of machine customisation and production flexibility, timely after-sales services across global markets, and a competitive balance between quality and cost.

VIR