PM to fund trade promotion projects
HA NOI — Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has approved a list of 169 trade promotion projects to receive Government funds this year. The funding will be worth roughly VND600 billion (US$38 million), the Ministry of Trade announced yesterday at a press conference.
"The number of approved projects this year is roughly 20 more than last year because trade promotion is now considered a key factor to helping the country meet its annual export target of $31.5 billion, or 19 per cent more than last year," said Trade Deputy Minister Luong Van Tu.
"Viet Nam’s international integration, especially the prospect of acceding to the World Trade Organisation later this year, has also compelled the Government to strengthen its trade promotion efforts" to keep producers from incurring losses on the domestic market amidst a flood of foreign imports, said the ministry’s Trade Promotion Agency director Ngo Van Thoan.
This year, the country’s trade promotion funds will be injected into overseas fact-finding trips seeking to enlarge export markets and organise domestic and overseas fairs, exhibitions and training schemes, said Thoan.
The national trade promotion projects will focus on 18 key export categories, including rice, seafood, tea, coffee, rubber, pepper, cashews, fruits and vegetables, clothing, footwear, wood products, handicrafts, electricity, electronics, IT products, plastics, engineering and processed food.
Among the projects, 17 footwear promotion projects will receive funding — the highest of any sector, followed by electronics and telecom, fruit and vegetables, and seafood industries with 16, 12 and 11 projects, respectively.
"Besides China, the US, the EU and Japan, the Government has also agreed to add Africa, especially South Africa, to the list of export markets to which the country will give priority this year," said Thoan.
Under the Prime Ministerial decision, the MoT is also required to report during the second quarter on the performance of seven long-term projects that were approved in 2003 and 2004.
Viet Nam initiated its national trade promotion programme in 2003 in a move to popularise Vietnamese products internationally and to increase the country’s export revenues. The programmes have been successful so far, and have helped Viet Nam earn a record $26.5 billion from exports last year.
However, domestic exporters said cumbersome procedures have caused difficulty in accessing funding and programmes.
Thoan also admitted the shortcomings, explaining that the bureaucracy is unavoidable because the programme is only two years old. However, he said, the MoT will submit a regulation this year to the Prime Minister to streamline the programme between 2006-10.
To help exporters sooner, Tu said, the MoT will also try to get the list of Prime Minister approved projects by the end of this year in order to implement the projects before March 2006.
Viet Nam News, March 10, 2005
