HÀ NỘI — Local companies should add more value to their products before selling them to foreign distribution channels. They should not focus too much on cheap prices or low labour cost that does not generate real value for the products. 

Yuichiro Shiotani, director general of Aeon Top Value Việt Nam made the statement at a training workshop, “Supporting Vietnamese enterprises’ participation in foreign distribution networks”, held in Hà Nội on Tuesday. Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc was present at the event.

He said Aeon Top Value had been working to put a number of made-in-Việt Nam products, which were available in Aeon Việt Nam retail stores, on the shelves of its stores in Japan. 

The workshop attracted participation of 180 exporters from northern provinces. 

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Central Group of Thailand, Japan-based Aeon Group and Rungis International Market - the world’s largest wholesale food market - from France. The workshop is part of the Government’s project, “developing direct participation of Vietnamese enterprises in foreign distribution system up to 2020”, which seeks to help local firms develop new export channels to directly take their products to consumers in foreign countries.

The goal will be achieved through a series of training workshops for enterprises on management of goods’ standard and quality and import-export procedures of different overseas markets. 

At the workshop, representatives of Central Group and Aeon updated participating firms on activities that will take place as part of the project in the time ahead to connect Vietnamese firms and foreign distributors. Shortly after the training session, Vietnamese businesses had the opportunity to meet the purchasing units of Central Group, Aeon Group and Rungis International Market to seek partnership. 

To effectively implement the project, the ministry has called for a close co-operation among State management bodies, trade promotion agencies, local governments, enterprises and distributors. Furthermore, the ministry has partnered with several foreign distributors to hold Vietnamese Products Week in the European Union and Asia, which has been organised since 2011.

Last year, the ministry partnered with Central Group to organise the second Vietnamese Products Week in Thailand in July,which showcased a variety of Vietnamese products,such as handicrafts, garment and textile and farm produce, including litchi, dragon fruit and sweet potatoes, to be exported to Thailand and other ASEAN countries. — VNS