City's Expo to get into national trade program

Monday, 06 / 09 / 10

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City's Expo to get into national trade program

Mai Van Dau told the Daily on the sidelines of a two-day national trade conference opening in HCMC yesterday that his ministry decided to do this partly because of the success of the Expo2003.
The ministry and HCMC's government have agreed to make the event an annual national trade promotion event, and the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) would join in the fair as a co-organizer from next year, he said.
Dau added the trade conference is discussing many topics, and the hottest issue is exporting wooden products.
The ministry placed the 2004 furniture export revenue at US$750-800 million early this year. However, export of wooden products has grown strongly in recent months, and the value may exceed US$1 billion, which is the target for 2010, according to him.
The deputy minister said the biggest difficulties facing the domestic woodwork industry are a severe lack of wood materials and that many small-sized producers cannot perform big orders from overseas buyers.
"Vietnam has to import more than 80% of wood materials. Besides, many enterprises fight with one another in importing timber, pushing up import prices. Therefore, furniture shipments do not bring as much benefit as expected."
In an effort to address the problem, the ministry is cooperating with furniture associations to help producers unite together to raise production capacity. The ministry also has plans to facilitate furniture producers in importing timber.

By HONG VAN - HCMC

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