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Promoting goods export not only focuses on market factors but also most importantly partners. Source: Internet.

Enterprises swim by themselves

In the export promotion story of his company, Hong Minh Duc, the owner of an enterprise specializing in exporting organic tea said: Starting a business in 2003, but in 2013, we were still struggling in exporting tea to Europe because of the bad impression of this market towardsVietnamese tea. According to Duc, European people were not impressed with Vietnamese tea due to the residues of pesticides and substandard quality.

"We had to drive around in Europe to meet each raw tea processing enterprise. In the first year, no businesses wanted to meet us and gavethe excuse of being busy. In the second year, we continuously sent tea samples. We continued to persist in sending samples and they finally accepted the test, impressed with the product, after many years of efforts to promote the export of tea to Europe, starting with only 2-3 products. So far, the company has 30 export tea products, although many difficulties still need to be solved, but businesses have more confidence in their products, proceeding to promote finding new markets," Duc said.

On the export promotion story of Vietnam, Assoc. Dr. Nguyen Van Nam, Chairman of the Institute of Brand Strategy and Competition, analyzed from the perspective of why Vietnamese goods have not really penetrated into the markets. According to Nam, the standards of quality, environmental standards, food safety and hygiene of Vietnam are not fully and synchronously completed.Vietnam's regulations have deviations and are lower than foreign standards. Products meet the requirements and regulations of Vietnam but do not meet the requirements and regulations of the other countries. Therefore, when entering Vietnam, Vietnamese goods must go through many stages of quarantine and quality inspection.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises have not mastered many factors such as laws, administrative procedures, reality of policiesin each market. Enterprises must seek to understand the needs of each market to produce satisfactory products.

"Experience shows that with every new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Vietnam participates in, the number of countries importing into Vietnam increases rapidly but Vietnamese exports to countries are always slow. It takes a few years, this obstacle is not big, but it takes time, it is required that both businesses and state management agencies must be more active, strengthen cooperation in trade promotion activities,"Nam said.

Promotion targeted at partners

Around export promotion, economist Vo Tri Thanh said: Vietnam participated in 16-17 FTAs ​​and is pushing promotion under FTAs. For example, Vietnam has the advantage of furniture, textiles, leather and footwear, agricultural products, which can be exported but goods must meet the rules of origin, understand the market, and connect with distributors. This is how Vietnam is still doing and this approach is important for many areas of Vietnam.

The second way of promoting that many Vietnamese enterprises do not know. "For example, when businesses are providing details for Samsung, is it export? That is the exporting enterprises. Many people understand that exporting is selling goods and paying foreign currencies, but not so. Foreign currency is only a payment method, in fact, tourists coming to Vietnam are exporting tourism, and international students coming to study in Vietnam are also exporting. Export promotion sometimes does not have to run out foreign countries that work immediately with units like Samsung and Boeing (FPT Corporation writing software for Boeing is also exporting). This is a very important approach, from hired employees to logistic owners, to be distributors," expert Vo Tri Thanh said.

Also according to Vo Tri Thanh, the important point in current trade promotion is that Vietnam must look at the market not only in one country but also at national, regional and global connectivity. Trade promotion also not only focuses on market factors but also partners.A company may be located in Vietnam or in the US, but the boss may be in Korea. "The issue of ownership can change at any time. The partner is not only to export but also to promote the import, as the input element, the supply chain. So to promote the export and import, many intermediaries are now important input partners for businesses, stories like Vietnam must play with any input partners in order to cooperate with which FTAs ​​Vietnam participates is the Ministry of Industry and Trade must consider and implement," said Vo Tri Thanh.

Replace "new clothes" for the association

From a business perspective, the director of a company specializing in exporting agricultural products said: We must change thinking in trade promotion. What the State can do is just do it. What businesses can do, they must do it themselves, must save themselves. He shared that he used to do business in foreign countries before moving to business. In fact, the deal is quite busy, often having to pick up guests, with little time for promotion, other approaches are needed. "Why can there not be a commercial deal? The association is to take care of this. The association can set up a trade promotion office. Finance will be contributed by members. Which companies use private information? If you want to check and conduct a test of your partner in a foreign country, you must pay for it, the staff of this office may be Vietnamese students who graduated from abroad, and I suggest that the association establish a promotion office. Foreign trade, from small to large scale, initially this office only has 1-2 people to get the lowest cost and the highest efficiency," the director said.

Contributing more views to this issue, from the perspective of the tea industry, Duc analyzed: Currently, the resources of enterprises in the tea industry are limited. To export products to fastidious markets, businesses need to maintain production and certification to capture new trends and develop new markets. However, the resources of enterprises only allow focusing on 1-2 key issues including customer service development and product development. "Other things such as maintaining certification, market information, management agencies and associations, industries will support businesses. The Association should change the way of doing the old model but instead act as an enterprise, providing support services that businesses need, the state will play a role as an information provider for businesses,"Duc said.