Once talking about the Vietnamese coffee, we cannot forget to mention Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Vietnamese coffee industry. Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is a meaningful trade promotion activity aimed at helping Vietnamese and foreign companies to popularise their products, consolidate the relationship between importers and exporters, and expand market and investment cooperation.
This is also an opportunity for domestic and international visitors to view the superb beauty and typical cultural characteristics of the Central Highlands and taste the Buon Ma Thuot coffee. Vietnam Business Forum had a talk with Mr Ly Thanh Tung, Director of Da Lak Trade - Investment Promotion Centre.
Dak Lak Trade - Investment Promotion Centre is one of 10 units operated under a special regime and is managed by the Dak Lak Province People’s Committee. Could you briefly tell the formation of the centre?
Dak Lak Trade - Investment Promotion Centre is an administrative unit under the direct management of the Dak Lak Province People’s Committee. It acts as an advisor to the committee about the trade and investment promotion policies and plans. At the same time, the centre cooperates with other units inside and outside the province to exploit and provide trade, tourism and investment promotion intermediary services. It also advises investors to do business in the locality and coordinates with other units in Dak Lak to stimulate investment attraction and apply trade - tourism promotion policies in the province.
Besides, we also coordinate with central agencies to organise trade and investment promotion programmes to popularise the image of the locality to domestic and foreign people. We organise local business delegations to take part in trade fairs, exhibitions, seminars on commerce and tourism and market surveys, and provide information for concerned enterprises. The centre also pays attention to training and improvement of working knowledge and capacity for local enterprises and agencies.
We join hands with related units to collect, introduce, disseminate and organise information about planning, plans, policies, guidelines, potentialities, advantages, preferences and investment projects in the province, regional and local economic contexts and industry information for investors to. We also support investors in seeking investment opportunities and establishing investment projects.
What is the core role of this Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival? Could you tell something about your preparatory activities and the image of this event?
This festival attracts the participation of more than 150 domestic and international companies which showcase their products and services in nearly 400 booths. This event is aimed to boost trade promotion activities for the Vietnamese coffee industry and polish the image of Dak Lak, the capital of the Vietnamese coffee industry. Above all, the festival is expected to make the Vietnamese coffee trademark a global interest.
Visitors will have chance to taste Buon Ma Thuot coffee, witness the inauguration of the Vietnam’s first agricultural product exchange and coffee trading floor and discover wet coffee processing model in micro and large scale. During the festival, there is a seminar on “Sustainable coffee cultivation” with themes of honouring coffee growers, processors, trademarks, exporters, local distributors and coffee culture. The final round of the farmers contest consisting excellent candidate farmers from 14 districts and cities is scheduled to take place on the opening day of the festival (December 10).
This festival will also vote and present gold cups and diplomas of merits for impressive booths and favourite products and enterprises. Especially, the festival will also honour exemplary coffee-growing individuals and households in Dak Lak province.
The Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is playing an important role in developing the fast-growing Vietnamese coffee industry to increase the Vietnamese coffee trademark value as well as Buon Ma Thuot coffee trademark value. This festival is not only a purely commercial event but also a cultural and tourist occasion.
What are your proposals about the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival?
The Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is undoubtedly brings in huge benefits for the Vietnamese coffee industry. The desire to globalise the Vietnamese coffee is not only the wish of coffee growers in the Central Highlands but also the entire nation. Dak Lak holds such great honour and is the promising destination for domestic and international visitors. The festival enables Vietnam to introduce its premium coffee quality to the world. Although this is the second time the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is organised, it has become a spotlight of the media world and the community.
This festival needs professionalising and adding contents to become a special fiesta. It will not only introduce the Vietnamese coffee industry but also disseminate the image of the people in the Central Highlands in particular and in Vietnam in general to the world. To go globally, it needs to be expanded, at least to the Southeast Asian region, and gather concerned entities. Vietnamese coffee growers, producers and processes should consider this a gala. They need to come here to learn each other to become better. Into the bargain, this model needs to be multiplied in other major cities for tourists and enterprises far and wide to know more about the Vietnamese coffee.
Nguyen Ngoc Hanh
Vietnamese
