The lack of information from potential markets makes it difficult for many businesses to enhance their export scale. Therefore, many businesses have said that they would like to have more sources of information about import markets to be able to proactively make reasonable business strategies as well as have solutions to expand the market.
Huge demand for business information
In fact, from the perspective of small domestic enterprises, information about importing countries, including those of EU or ASEAN, is still quite unclear due to the lack of integration information. Although they want to penetrate, businesses do not know the
list of potential customers as well as competitors in the markets.
Regarding this issue, many businesses said that along with business associations,
business information provider is one of the important information channels that can help businesses reduce costs and increase understanding of the market, which is very important in the context of the current economic integration. However, most of them still show thirst for information from import markets. For example, with free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has joined, it is not easy for domestic enterprises to actively capture market information of member countries.
The State needs to increase the dissemination of FTAs' content to enterprises. This is a possible solution and needs to be implemented immediately to help businesses understand and take appropriate advantage of these FTAs. Meanwhile, most businesses know about FTAs through communication channels. Therefore, it can be seen that the information dissemination new generation FTAs needs to be paid more attention.
Many businesses said that they are facing difficulties in planning and structuring crops because they themselves and farmers lack information about the consumer market. As a result, what businesses are always looking for is the information about the market, which must be predictive so that farmers and businesses are more active in production.
Representative of an agricultural cooperative that specializes in producing high quality pepper for export, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan, Director of Lam San Cooperative (Dong Nai), said that the business is focusing on exporting to the EU market and it really needs to know the information related to the rules and regulations of the market. Take Chinese market for example, it is possible that the requirements of quality, products are origin are met but for long-term and stable cooperation, it is necessary to have support from the authorities on partner market information.
Mr. Pham Thiet Hoa - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), said that based on his observation, information is the first demand and is becoming increasingly important for Vietnamese enterprises as well as investors before deciding to manufacture and export. "We are always concerned about the desire of businesses to have timely information and continuous practical updates from each market, each industry, otherwise it is difficult for them to expand exports. If information is not timely and updated, businesses will not keep up with market tastes as well as changes in policies of other countries and thus will be vulnerable to potential risks”- Mr. Hoa stated his opinion.
According to exporting enterprises, providing information is not only about finding buyers for businesses, but also about assessing their situation, potentials, standards and technical barriers so that Vietnamese enterprises can actively adjust to meet their requirements properly.
However, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son - an expert of Import Promotion Organization of the Netherlands, said that many Vietnamese export enterprises still pay more attention to the deal with specific and immediate customers. They completely lack a panoramic view of the market potential, which makes it difficult for them to determine budgets, or other resources such as people and time spent on export promotion. In addition to not having sufficient information of the market, lack of transparency and traceability is also a big problem for Vietnamese enterprises. In fact, Vietnamese exporters have to spend a lot of money to systematically and strictly comply with standards in the whole production system or supply chain that the importing party requires.
Therefore, both businesses and authorities need to solve the above-mentioned problems, taking advantage of the free trade agreements that have been signed to promote sustainable export development in the coming time.
