|
Companies learn to be more competitive, with Italy's help
Vietnamese small and medium enterprises will be provided technical assistance to sharpen their competitive skills in global markets through a cluster development approach, as part of a project funded by Italy.
The 3-million-euro (US$3.4 million) "SME Cluster Development" will help enterprises from three clusters: (1) textiles and garments in Ha Noi, the northern province of Hung Yen and the southern hub of HCM City, (2) footwear and leather industries, and (3) wood processing and furniture in HCM City and southern Binh Duong Province.
The selected firms must operate for at least two years, meet the projects' demand for financial capacity and have development and export potential.
Deadline for applications is March 22.
Chosen enterprises would receive support in designing, branding, market targeting, production efficiency, quality assurance and finishing processes to produce higher value-added products, said project chief technical advisor Francesco Russo.
Knowledge of market standards, requirements and best practices would also be offered to help the firms better access international markets, he said.
In addition, new market and partnership opportunities, in particular linkages with Italian enterprises, would be opened up.
"Through business co-operation, the project will help Vietnamese firms upgrade and be more competitive," Italian Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni said. "Italian enterprises will also get opportunities to know and enter into one of the fastest developing economies in the world."
"Individual SMEs, mostly due to their size, are often unable to identify and capture opportunities. Business linkages among enterprises within clusters will lead to a better chance of tapping the opportunities," said Nguyen Trong Hieu, Deputy Director of the Enterprises Development Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Clusters are local economic systems characterised by a significant aggregation of SMEs in the same area, producing a range of similar or related products, and interconnected by an intense network of business relations.
In many countries such as Italy, clusters have been the environment where SMEs could reach high degrees of competitiveness and efficiency, overcoming their individual limits through close interaction, specialisation and co-operation.
Yesterday also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam and the Ha Noi Business Association.
These understandings were expected to make effective contribution to developing the bilateral relations in business, trade and investment between the two countries.
As of October last year, Italian businesses had invested more than $189 million in 40 projects in Viet Nam. Italy ranked 31st among 93 countries and territories investing in the country.
Two-way trade reached $797 million in the first half of last year, up 7.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. Viet Nam's export value to Italy accounts for 10 per cent of Viet Nam's total export earnings from the EU market, according to statistics from the Viet Nam General Department of Customs.
Viet Nam's major exports to the market are footwear, seafood, garments and textiles, coffee and wood and wood products. Viet Nam's imports from Italy are mainly machinery, equipment and production materials.
vietnamnews
|
