Recently, the Hanoi Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE) in coordination with the American Market Department (the Ministry of Industry and Trade) organised the seminar “Latin American Market – Opportunities for Vietnamese businesses”. The event is a good opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to access and increase cooperation with this high potential but untapped market.
Speaking at the seminar, Ms Le Hoang Oanh, Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Agency affirmed that Latin American region had 33 countries and territories with an area of 21 million km2 and a population of nearly 600 million. Trade relations between Vietnam and Latin America have been promoted. In recent years, the cooperation between Vietnam and Latin American markets has flourished; trade increased 17 times from US$245 million in 2000 to over US$5.5 billion in 2012; there is much room for trade growth in the time to come. The Trade Promotion Agency also emphasised that in the context of the current economy, while Vietnam’s traditional export markets are facing some difficulties, with significantly decrease in the volume and turnover, the market expansion into Latin America is a new opportunity, opening up the potential for Vietnam enterprises.
Assessing the Latin America market and its relations with Vietnam in recent years, Mr Tran Duy Dong, Deputy Director of the American Market Department, said that Vietnam has trade relations with all states and territories in Latin America. The export turnover value between Vietnam and America is still modest though the market is potential with some countries having the economic scale of hundreds of billions of dollars, such as Colombia, Venezuela and Peru.
According to statistics from the General Department of Customs, the main export markets of Vietnam in Latin America are Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Cuba. In 2012, Vietnam’s exports to the Latin American region was about US$2.68 billion and imports from this region US$2.82 billion. Vietnam exports to this market mainly footwear, rice, textiles, coffee, rubber, plastic and imports products such as animal feed, steel, metals and materials footwear, textiles, cotton, chemical products. Recently, electrical goods, electronics, information technology, engineering, building materials, wood products are entering this market and the turnover is relatively positive.
Regarding the advantages of market penetration in Latin America, Mr Dong said that the market has huge import capacity, large population, the demand for goods produced and consumed at high levels, particularly the tastes of the majority of consumers still prefer imports, in line with Vietnam’s goods. Besides, the two countries’ goods are complementary to each other, plus the Latin American countries have foreign economic policy toward Asia including Vietnam and the preferential agreements Vietnam-Chile FTA and TPP are being negotiated, which are the very favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to enter the market.
Assessing the Mexican market, the deputy ambassador of Mexico to Vietnam said that Mexico has the advantages such as favourable geographical location, the legal framework and the open regulations, good workforce and industry, and competitive costs. In addition, Mexico has huge potential for renewable energy which is a favourable condition for Vietnamese businesses.
However, besides the advantage, there are many difficulties that Vietnamese enterprises have to face such as high transportation costs due to far distance, lack of market information, the barriers of language communication, method of payment, increasing trend of protectionism in a number of key markets such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina etc. Also Vietnamese goods to this market also face stiff competition with some other countries such as China, India and other countries in the region. But according to Mr Dong, the biggest difficulty is that Vietnam still does not have the priority policy of trade promotion activities in this area. This seminar is a new opportunity to promote trade for Vietnam enterprises as well as the Latin American business.
It is known that long-term goal is that Vietnamese goods will be available throughout the Latin American market, with business representatives in key markets, solidifying and enhancing market share dominated in the traditional markets, adding new items, such as building materials, ceramics, electric motors, mechanical and consumer goods with higher industrial and value added.
Regarding measures to boost exports to Latin American market, participants said that in the future, it’s necessary to strengthen the exchange of information about the market for the two businesses, providing online information to support business. In addition, it is required to speed up the activity fairs, exhibitions and surveys, seek markets and partners, promote the activities of the trade representative, and coordinate activities overseas to bridge the two sides.
Thu Ha
Đăng ký: VietNam News
