On 30/9/2020, 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 fresh food, processing, agriculture - forestry - fisheries, electronic products ... wishing to learn and cooperate with the Middle East - Africa market area.

Making speech 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 improving and strengthening the traditional friendship with Middle Eastern - Africa countries. 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 Middle East-Africa 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 variety of Vietnam's key export products, the Middle East - Africa market block is really diverse markets for Vietnamese enterprises.

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 ... Besides, 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 a great chance to expand trade cooperation between Vietnam and this region.

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

Mr. Nguyen Thai Son, Asia - Africa Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the Middle East and African countries have main resources of 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 will also have the opportunity to enter the other countries in the region.

Additionally, 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 and 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 that have 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 from many other countries such as rice, cereals (India), tea, coffee, spices (China, India, United Arab Emirates) and 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, when products are exported to this market not only "hit" on local consumers but also target 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 and the Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad to participate in trade promotion to this market block.

Trade Promotion Department and Trade Departments are committed to be 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./.