HCM CITY — A buyer-seller conference to link businesses in HCM City with those in other cities and provinces will be held in the city from Friday to Sunday.

It will include a seminar to connect producers with modern and traditional distribution channels in the city.

There will be a seminar to connect supply and demand in the manufacturing and supporting industry sectors on Friday. The sellers will be from both HCM City and elsewhere while the buyers will mainly be from HCM City.

Another will discuss measures to achieve greater efficiency in the connection programme and improve tracing of origins of farm produce and food products.

A buyer-seller conference on Saturday will connect businesses in the city with those in other cities and provinces.

The event will also feature 450 booths displaying regional specialities, supporting industry products, those with high export potential, and well-known products from HCM City and other cities and provinces.

According to the city Department of Industry and Trade, the event this year will be larger and go on for longer than in previous years and have new features to meet the increasing demand for link-ups between city and provinces.

Besides helping find outlets for new products and products not sold in the city so far, this year’s conference would also focus on resolving difficulties in the transaction process, thereby helping streamline supply chains, it said.

The event, which usually focuses on farm produce and traditional specialities, would this year be expanded to bring together sellers and buyers of supporting industry products, typical rural industrial products and products meeting export standards, it said.

The conference will also help link credit institutions with businesses.

With the active participation of many large distributors in the city such as Saigon Co.op, Satra, Central Group, Lotte, MM Mega Market and export companies, the organisers believe the conference could become an effective channel to take some of Việt Nam’s unique products to the global market.

This year producers, distributors and businesses can also link up online at www.ketnoicungcau.vn.

At the conference, distributors have set up information booths to apprise suppliers about consumers’ demands with regard to quality, packaging and taste.

More than 2,760 businesses from 39 cities and provinces have registered to participate, the department said.

Being held since 2011, the annual programme has greatly helped improve product quality and meet consumer demands.

It has also helped the city identify firms for its market stabilisation programme.

Businesses in the city and other cities and provinces have co-operated to implement 75 projects worth VNĐ27.4 trillion (US$1.2 billion) in various sectors.

The programme has helped small production units improve their technologies, enabling more and more products to enter modern distribution systems in the city. — VNS