A customer purchasing OCOP products at an event in An Giang Province. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Sang

HÀ NỘI The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has improved the efficiency and quality of connecting supply and demand, as well as cooperation between businesses and localities, making an important and positive contribution to the country's economic development.

This was heard at a forum on promoting effective connection between supply and demand organised by the MoIT’s Việt Nam Institute of Strategy and Policy for Industry and Trade (VIOIT) in Hà Nội on Thursday.

In a situation where the world was facing many changes, promoting the connection between supply and demand was not only a way to promote economic development but also a necessary direction to build a strong economy, meeting market needs and ensuring sustainable prosperity for the future, said VIOIT deputy director Vũ Quang Hùng.

The connection between supply and demand helped optimise resources and encourage innovation and product development, as well as create cooperation opportunities and enhance competition, he added.

In recent years, in order to connect products with provinces and cities nationwide, the MoIT has organised conferences to connect supply and demand with provinces and cities and support businesses.

Through conferences, businesses interact, exchange and learn from experience; from small and fragmented production activities, through trading activities, connecting supply and demand has contributed to businesses gradually shifting to new approaches to the market.

“These activities help businesses on awareness of how to create brands and packaging, how to grasp consumer tastes and trends, build brands for business and products, especially improving product quality to gain a foothold and compete in the market,” said Đoàn Mạnh Trường, a representative from the MoIT’s Agency for Regional Industry and Trade (ARIT).

The ministry has coordinated with provincial departments of industry and trade to successfully organise 28 typical rural industrial goods exhibitions at regional and national levels in the 2013-2022 period.

Each exhibition has about 350 - 450 standard booths and on average the participation of about 155 - 200 rural industrial enterprises.

The ministry has effectively implemented the project to promote Vietnamese enterprises to participate directly in foreign goods networks. It has organised Việt Nam Weeks in countries around the world, such as France, Thailand, Japan since last year.

It organised the 2023 International Goods Supply Chain Connection event with 1,000 trade connections between 200 reputable Vietnamese export enterprises, mainly agricultural, forestry, and fishery export enterprises, and connected with 150 foreign purchasing and distribution delegations.

Besides the results achieved, the connection between manufacturers and distributors also has difficulties, said Trường. Bringing products to large distributors such as supermarkets still faces certain obstacles, especially for small manufacturing establishments.

Labour shortage still caused difficulties for businesses, especially trained workers. Vocational training for workers had not met the development needs of businesses, he said.

Some businesses have had to narrow their production and business scale and have difficulty in implementing investment schedules in production expansion projects.

Counterfeit goods and poor quality goods are still mixed in the market. The management of price listing and selling at listed prices is mainly carried out in supermarkets, while in markets, the situation of listing prices but not selling at listed prices is still common.

The organisation of Vietnamese goods markets in residential areas is only aimed at sales purposes, but has not yet created a strong impact on the "Vietnamese people prioritise using Vietnamese goods" campaign.

Consumers are greatly affected by advertising through electronic and cross-border electronic platforms, causing confusion for businesses and consumers about product quality and brand, causing loss of trust and endangering the health of consumers.

To promote activities connecting the supply and demand of goods and develop markets to promote the strengths of the provinces, creating opportunities for socio-economic development, the ARIT proposed State management agencies innovate and promote trade promotion; consult and support businesses and production facilities in branding, packaging, brand development, product promotion, combined with the development trend of e-commerce.

The agency also recommended the promotion for the role of bridge, introduction, and co-operation in production and consumption of products between commercial enterprises and producers; introduction of products and goods to participate in the supply chain of distributors, shopping centres, supermarkets, and convenience stores nationwide.

It also proposed management agencies study to change the form of organisation to connect supply and demand, in which the conference to connect supply and demand should have consulting content to support businesses in market development and brand building.

State management agencies must also strengthen market management, have plans to manage prices of essential goods, regularly inspect and control the market to avoid shortages and price fever, promptly detect and handle acts of smuggling, production and trading of counterfeit goods, commercial fraud, speculation, price increases, and illegal profiteering that destabilise the market. VNS