Vietnam Manufacturing Industry: Potential, Important Market

On the sideline of Metalex 2011, ASEAN’s largest international machine tools and metalworking machinery trade exhibition, organized by Reed Tradex Company on December 21-24, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand, Vietnam Business Forum reporter Nam Pham conducts an interview with Mr. Chainarong Limpkittisin, Managing Director of Reed Tradex, about the company’s business strategy in Vietnam in coming years.

 

The year 2011 is a very challenging year but Metalex continue upgrading ASEAN manufacturing industry in its 25^th year. Metalex 2011, under the theme of “The Heart of ASEAN Metalworking”, is one of the most meaningful regional platforms for 55,000 industrialists to catch up with the latest innovations from 4,000 new machinery and technologies by over 2,700 brands from 50 countries and territories.

 

Before the floods, 2011 had been a good year, in terms of business, for Reed Tradex. In June, one of our exhibitions called “Manufacturing Expo”, which is the only show in Thailand that is dedicated to machinery and technologies for auto-parts manufacturing, broke practically every record it had ever created. More visitors attended the event, the space was bigger, so that it is now stepping up to match the scale that Metalex currently is. As for Metalex, even though some of our exhibitors were struck by the floods and could not participate in this edition, almost all of them have confirmed to participate in the next year’s event. These space requirements are driving us to fulfill them with bigger spaces. And these requirements reflect the confidence that the industrialists have in Thailand’s industry and potentiality as the manufacturing hub of ASEAN.

 

Our performance in both Thailand and Vietnam in 2011 is estimated to reach a growth of over 15%, although we saw lots of difficulties from the floods.

 

 

We have cooperated with Vietnamese partners to organized exhibitions over the past six years, and we saw a strong growth of the country’s industrial sector. In September and October of 2011, we went to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to organize “Vietnam Manufacturing Expo, “Metalex Vietnam”, and “NEPCON Vietnam”, all of which received tremendous welcome from the industrialists there, so we could see them becoming bigger in the next editions. Many exhibitors of our previous manufacturing and metalworking shows in Vietnam were very happy and confirmed to participate in the next editions because they found many customers who wanted to invest in machinery and technologies in Vietnam. This means they have lots of businesses in Vietnam, therefore, it is good for the country in general, and Vietnam is one of our most important, potential markets for Reed Tradex in the coming years.

 

We really want to expand the business in Vietnam, however, exhibition facilities in Hanoi have not been capable for big fairs and exhibitions. Therefore, our exhibitions in Hanoi can not offer a large number of exhibitors. 

 

We have a long-term belief in the Vietnamese economy. According to a recent forecast of HSBC, Vietnam trade volume will grow by 144% to the end of 2025, from the current value of US$108.1 billion to US$282.5 billion. Egypt, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and mainland China are amongst the top five international powerhouses which will drive world trade growth until 2025.

 

So far, we have still focused on our advantages of organizing manufacturing tools and metalworking machinery exhibitions in Vietnam. From 2012, Reed Tradex will expand a wider range of industries to display such as food processing, education, and others. In October 2012, we organize Metalex Vietnam 2012 – Vietnam’s most comprehensive International Machine Tool and Metalworking Technology Trade Exhibition and Conference, and NEPCON Vietnam 2012 – Vietnam’s only Exhibition on Assembly, Measurement and Testing Technologies for Electronics Manufacturing.

 

Especially, we are preparing to hold Worlddidac Vietnam 2012 in December at the Hanoi International Center for Exhibition (I.C.E). This will be an international exhibition on educational material and professional training, bringing exhibitors from all over the world to show new education technologies. This show, supported by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Worlddidac Association, will give an opportunity for those involved in education in Vietnam and the region to update themselves on education technologies without spending money traveling overseas.      

 

In think, the Vietnamese Government needs to ensure the important economic indicators such as inflation rate, interest rate, exchange rate, and payment balance with the aim of building up the confidence of investors in Vietnam. With the concepts and purposes of our shows in Vietnam, I confirm that these current difficulties for the Vietnamese business community will not affect our coming shows in both terms of visitors and revenues. Our shows only aim to introduce new machinery and technologies to Vietnamese industrialists, so 2012 will be the good time for Vietnamese manufacturers to prepare for production resumes in the near future.