On September 30, 2020, Department of Trade Promotion (Trade Promotion - Ministry of Industry and Trade) organized an online seminar "Trade promotion to Middle East - Africa market".

 The seminar attracted the participation of more than 120 Vietnamese enterprises operating in the fields of trading in fresh food, processing, agriculture - forestry - fisheries, electronic products ... wishing to learn and cooperate with the Middle East - Africa market area. Speaking at the opening of the seminar, Mr. Le Hoang Tai, Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Department said that in its foreign policy, Vietnam always attaches great importance to strengthening and strengthening the traditional friendship with Middle Eastern countries. - Africa. So far, Vietnam has established trade relations with all 70 countries in the Middle East - Africa. Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and these two regions has increased more than 9 times in the past 15 years.

Agriculture, energy, transportation, labor and experts are changing fields in cooperation between Vietnam and the Middle East-African countries.

According to Mr. Le Hoang Tai, with geographical advantages of over 36 million square kilometers and a population of over 1.6 billion people, accounting for about 7% of global GDP and there is a high demand for importing a wide variety of suitable products. Vietnam's key export products, the Middle East - Africa market block are really diverse markets for Vietnamese businesses.

Vietnam's exports to the Middle East - Africa region are increasingly diversified. In addition to commodities such as agricultural products, textiles, footwear ... there are more industrial products with high added value such as computers, electronic products and components, mobile phones, machinery, equipment and spare parts ... In addition, the business environment of the Middle East - Africa has been increasingly improved thanks to the trend of peace and strengthening regional linkages, so there is room to expand trade cooperation. between Vietnam and this region is huge.

Mr. Le Hoang Tai said that, in addition to exploiting traditional markets, expanding and developing commercial cooperation with new potential markets in the Middle East - Africa is one of the solutions that Vietnam need to aim for the next time.

Mr. Nguyen Thai Son, Asia - Africa Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the Middle East countries and Africa have main resources are oil, gas and ore. For food products, they depend heavily on imports. 

Goods distribution channels such as supermarket chains, retail chains are spread across countries in the region, so if Vietnamese products enter a Middle East - Africa country, they will also have the opportunity to enter other countries in the region.

In addition, Mr. Dao Manh Duc, Third Secretary, in charge of Vietnam Trade in South Africa also pointed out the advantages for Vietnam's exports to the Middle East - Africa market. Specifically, this market block is quite easy-going, does not require high technical requirements like the European Union (EU) market or other difficult markets.

In addition to the above advantages, Mr. Hoang Duc Nhuan, Commercial Counselor, Vietnam State Office in Algeria also pointed out the difficulties that Vietnamese businesses will face in the Middle East - Africa market. Specifically, the Covid 19 translation makes the oil prices (the main source of income) in these countries decrease and the decrease in their foreign currencies has made some countries have policies to reduce imports. In particular, Algeria has banned the import of some fruits such as oranges, tangerines ... when the country is in the harvest season.

In addition, in the Middle East - Africa, Vietnamese products will also have to compete fiercely with goods of many other countries such as rice, cereals (India), tea, coffee, spices (China, India, United Arab Emirates), agricultural products (Thailand, Kuwait, India) …

In order for Vietnamese products to successfully penetrate into the Middle East - Africa market, Vietnamese Trade Counselors in this region said that businesses need to improve product quality. At the same time, products when exported to this market not only "hit" on local consumers but also towards foreigners living here like Indians and other Asian countries.

Enterprises also need to apply production technology to have high added value products and reduce costs in order to increase competitiveness with products of other countries. In addition, businesses also need to actively exploit the market as registered with the Trade Promotion Department, the Asia - Africa Market Department, the Vietnamese Trade Offices in foreign countries to participate in trade promotion to this market block. Trade Promotion Department and Trade Trade Department are committed to ready to support businesses in connecting, learning and verifying information about partners, markets ... to create favorable conditions for businesses to promote export to the Middle East - Chau Phi./.