Making Solid Inroads into Nordic Market

At the seminar "Doing Business with the Nordic market: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway" held by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the Nordic Embassies and partners in Hanoi, Dr Doan Duy Khuong, VCCI Vice President said the Nordic region is among the most prosperous and stable regions in the world. Despite the geographical distance, the Nordic partners always support Vietnam. Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark were the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and the Nordic countries each year reaches about US$1.3 billion, among which Vietnam exports about US$500 million, mostly raw materials, rubber, machinery, computers, electronic products, components, appliances and garments, and imports US$800 million.

 

Vietnam and the Nordic countries have also signed cooperation agreements in almost all areas, namely economics, science and technology, trade, promotion and protection of investments, double taxation evasion, transport, etc, that create a legal basis for cooperation between Vietnam and each of these countries. However, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and the Nordic countries are modest and not really commensurate with the potential and the expectations of the governments and peoples of the two sides.

 

According to Dr Khuong, to further promote economic cooperation between Vietnam and Nordic region, many projects have been deployed to support businesses in multiple industries with different scales under the sponsorship and support of the governments of the Nordic countries. It includes the project on support to development of agricultural and fishery products exported to Finland and Northern Europe, which was adopted and officially came into operation in July 2014. The goal of the project is to improve the capacity of Vietnam’s export enterprises in the fields of agricultural and fishery products, a potential field and accounting for high proportion of Vietnam's economy. To achieve this goal, the project has organised specific activities to support market survey and learn regulations and information for imports and exports.

 

In the framework of the project, over the last 2 years, with the close support of the Embassy of Finland in Vietnam, the relevant units / departments such as the EU Delegation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Foreign Trade University, local Departments of Planning and Investment, the Embassies of the Nordic countries and VCCI have organised more than 20 training classes on online trading tools to research the market and potential export products; 11 seminars to introduce the markets of Finland, Northern Europe, the impact of the Vietnam-EU trade agreement for enterprises in Hanoi, HCM City and Mekong Delta provinces and recently expanded to the Northern region, attracting nearly 2,000 attendees. The project also conducted a survey of over 200 agriculture and fishery export companies to identify factors affecting exports and imports, identify strengths and weaknesses of the companies in the industry, through which analyse and make recommendations to improve the capacity of the enterprise; support and bring Vietnamese enterprises to have access to agricultural and fisheries markets, looking for potential partners at home and abroad. The project has also launched "Handbook for agricultural and fisheries export enterprises to the markets of Finland and Northern Europe” and the book “Vietnam’s agricultural and fishery processing and export enterprises” which includes 100 leading companies in this field.

 

"These activities of the project received a positive opinion of the business community in Vietnam, the partners of the project and related units based on the criteria of effectiveness, practicality, rich content through teaching / presentation of the leading experts of the units / organizations at home and abroad, especially being absolutely free. 80 percent of businesses said that through the seminar / training projects, enterprises not only to mastered market information, tax policy, and effectively use online market research tools for business, but also solved many problems of the potential market, overcoming trade barriers and build development strategies for enterprises in the new period. Besides, the project not only brings tangible benefits to the enterprises, but is also very useful for trade promotion officials in the agricultural and fisheries sector in the big cities and the Mekong Delta,” Dr Khuong said.

 

According to Dr Khuong, in 2017, it is expected that the funding for the project by the government of Finland will pause. However, based on the success and effectiveness of the project, especially the positive feedback from Vietnamese enterprises, VCCI will continue to support business operations and further expand to the Northern areas. VCCI plans to build funding from the support of businesses, international organizations and the Vietnamese Government.

 

In addition, according to Dr Khuong, in 2018, it is expected that Vietnam-EU bilateral trade agreement will officially take effect, and the Nordic region will be a door for Vietnamese enterprises to access the EU market in the most comprehensive way, take advantage of this agreement. Besides, through the Vietnamese market, the EU and the Nordic countries will also have the opportunity to reach out to the ASEAN community with many business and investment opportunities. “Hopefully more and more Vietnamese enterprises will actively explore, research information to enhance capacity, create added value and become more successful in the Nordic market,” said Dr Khuong.

 

Mr Janne Sykko, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of Finland, said the Government of Finland has always appreciated and respected the traditional cooperation between the two countries. Since 1974, Finland has always supported Vietnam through ODA and other programmes such as local funding and preferential funds to help private enterprises, organisations and individuals to find deals or business opportunities. According to Mr Janne Sykko, the potential for cooperation between the two sides is very large, especially in areas where Finland has strengths such as high technology, clean technology and education, and Vietnam’s main export commodities.