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European enterprises learn about Vietnamese goods at a trade promotion event held in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Nguyen Hue

Advantages and disadvantages

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with a strong commitment to open the market, EVFTA will give a big boost to Vietnam's export growth and help diversify markets and export products, especially agricultural and aquatic products.

Accompanying the EVFTA is the Vietnam - EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). With more open markets, European enterprises will increase investment in Vietnam, creating conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to access a wide range of imported goods and materials as well as high-quality and stable machinery, equipment and technology from the EU, thereby improving productivity and improving the quality of their export products. This is an important driving force for Vietnamese ministries, localities and businesses to engage in trade promotion activities for export products to the EU, especially key export products such as seafood and vegetables, processed agricultural products, electronic goods and electronic components, textiles and footwear.

In addition, EU countries with high and relatively uniform socio-economic development have shaped a common market with developed commercial infrastructure and trade promotion events taking place in EU countries are always top-class, attracting a large number of customers from other continents. Therefore, the organization or participation in trade promotion activities in EU countries is considered to be very convenient and increase efficiency when implemented in one country but can easily access other partners. Exports and consumers of not only EU member countries but also many other market areas in the world.

In addition to the above advantages, trade promotion in the EU market also faced some difficulties because EU is a big market but has strict requirements on quality standards, food safety and hygiene, labelling, and environmental protection. The next difficulty for Vietnamese enterprises when implementing trade promotion activities in the EU market is the language as well as limited understanding of regulations in the EU market.

What should businesses do?

According to the Trade Promotion Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade, in recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has always prioritized trade promotion activities to help businesses learn information, connect with partners and boost exports to the EU market. In particular, in terms of funding, within the framework of the national trade promotion program, the Ministry of Industry and Trade annually averages 20% of the Program's total funding for trade promotion activities in the EU market.

In terms of trade promotion, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has directly supported enterprises to participate in or guide trade associations, organize trade promotion to select big and prestigious trade promotion fairs, exhibitions and events in the European market to develop national trade promotion, and helped enterprises to participate. Participating in prestigious and leading trade fairs in Europe every year helps businesses achieve results such as international fairs and exhibitions specialized in agricultural and aquatic products, vegetables, processed food in France, Germany, Belgium; specialized in textile and footwear in Italy.

In addition to trade promotion and market development activities, the Department of Trade and Industry has coordinated with domestic and foreign agencies and organizations, the Vietnam trade deal in the EU to implement programs on brand building, brand promotion, improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises and products on the international markets. At the same time, focusing on promoting cooperation with trade missions, embassies, trade promotion organizations of EU countries such as France, Italy and Hungary aiming at connecting information and exchanging import and export needs of enterprises; coordinate with Vietnam Trade Offices in the European market to introduce and promote Vietnam's potential products and reputable businesses to local partners.

These activities have contributed to encouraging and motivating two-party businesses in developing market access strategies and expanding import and export markets of enterprises, thereby contributing to boosting exchange in two-way trade and investment activities between Vietnam and EU countries.

However, according to the Trade Promotion Department, for trade promotion activities to be highly effective and bring good opportunities for businesses in addition to the support of the state, businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, need to proactively study information for positive preparation. The preparation should be conducted comprehensively from studying the opportunities and challenges of the EU market to solutions such as improving quality and product designs; promote competitive advantage, increase efficiency, developing brand.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises need to invest in developing products to ensure compliance with EU standards and regulations on imported goods as well as carefully prepare export plans for each item and each target market; focusing on improving the quality of goods, applying advanced quality standards systems to meet increasingly stringent technical requirements of import markets. Along with the improvement of quality, productivity must be improved to reduce costs, diversify models and packages to suit consumer tastes.

The challenge of realizing the VPA / FLEGT Agreement

Beside, businesses need to improve coordinating with trade promotion organizations to build plans and participate in implementing trade promotion activities to ensure effective trade promotion activities. Actively invest in trade promotion at home and abroad, improve the capacity of human resources to professionalize the implementation capacity and maximize the effectiveness of trade promotion activities in the EU market.