Continue to promote the developing standards program to support enterprises

Mrs. Vu Kim Hanh, President of the Vietnam High-Quality Goods Business Association

Among the business support activities of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods, the program of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods - Integration Standards enables businesses to improve the quality of Vietnamese goods. Could you please share the program's results?

Over the past five years, the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises has implemented the Program of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods - Integration Standards which has built two sets of criteria for food and non-food items and currently 177 enterprises have achieved this certification. In which, the number of food enterprises is 127 and non-food is 50 enterprises.

Meeting the integration standard enables enterprises to lay the foundation to quickly access international standards which can be the first "passport" to enter markets.

In particular, the program has built a stepping stone standard between VietGAP and GlobalG.A.P to bring Vietnamese agricultural products into the world market - the LocalG.A.P standard.

This is a cooperation program between the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Products and GlobalG.A.P to facilitate small farmers that account for more than 70% of the agricultural structure of Vietnam, can participate in the market. LocalG.A.P certified products will be assigned a GLN (Localgap Number) by GlobalG.A.P.

The LocalG.AP program has created a stepping stone for Vietnamese farmers and agricultural cooperatives to approach good agricultural practices according to international standards, widely recognized by most of the fastidious markets in the world.

Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted businesses, what activities does the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises do to support the "resuscitation" of businesses?

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, enterprises faced many difficulties in production management as well as market access. Therefore, we have organized seminars to share experiences between businesses, such as how to organize "3 on the spot", how to protect the source of raw materials as well as the distribution system of the company. These seminars are close to reality with many useful experiences shared by businesses.

This year, the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises will innovate to better support businesses in the new situation.

In the past, we have always called and encouraged businesses to make efforts to improve the quality of goods in order to receive the support of consumers. But now with the deeper integration and abundance of goods along with more demanding and strict requirements from consumers about the quality of Vietnamese goods to be close to international ones.

Therefore, in 2022 and the coming years, the association will promote the program to support enterprises in developing standards. The association has built a specialized department to assist enterprises in developing standards in choosing the right standard for the market they want to export to and how to develop standards with the most reasonable cost and maximum efficiency.

Given the program to support businesses in digital transformation, the association will cooperate with a partner of the World Bank to deliver practical applications (apps) and support the application of digital tech in the management stages of enterprises. I hope this digitization program, along with the program that the Ministry of Science and Technology is about to sign with the Vietnam Association of High-Quality Goods Enterprises in phase 4 will support enterprises in technological innovation and digitization.

The association is also working with a number of supermarkets and large-scale department stores to develop a retail partnership program. In particular, these systems will give priority to accepting the import of goods from enterprises certified with high-quality Vietnamese goods, as well as set up incentives for more reasonable distribution costs and more focused promotions.

It is known that in this year's program, the Association also built a separate program on supporting export enterprises, could you share the specific activities that the association intends to implement?

In addition to meeting international standards, enterprises preparing to export to foreign markets often face two main obstacles, which are an unclear understanding of customers and a lack of connection with partnerships.

Besides, those who even have been very successful in expanding export markets are still revealing many limitations to better manage these markets.

With the network of the Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Enterprises in different countries and many years of experience, the association will help export enterprises consolidate, take care and expand to more markets.

The most important thing is that businesses must obtain accurate information, study the market carefully before signing the contract. About a year ago, we did not dare confirm that we could carry out analytical reports, but now the association has built a department specializing in analyzing export markets and connecting with important markets. Up to now, although businesses have to spend money to buy information, they do not know how to handle it to be practical with their business needs. Therefore, this department will process information and support businesses.

For example, based on the need to export durian, we will recommend overseas businesses who are currently in need of buying durian and domestic ones who are exporting durian with detailed price and quantity, means of transport.

Moreover, information about the import partners is also published. From that data, enterprises will choose their own export markets, then the association will connect enterprises with buyers, supporting businesses to meet buyers' requirements.

In addition, programs to connect businesses with key markets will also continue to be implemented. Typically, via Thaifex fair, many enterprises such as Qui Phuc, Khai Hoan have found partners for successful exports.

Thank you!