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Handicraft makers urged to study Japanese market
Lao businesses won't be able to penetrate the Japanese market until they know what Japanese people like, a senior official from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has said.
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| Mr Somvang Niththavong ( left ) and a Japanese colleague attend a seminar in Vientiane yesterday. |
Trade Promotion and Product Development Department Acting Director General, Mr Somvang Niththavong, said yesterday he wanted Lao business operators to observe the likes and dislikes of Japanese consumers before making goods for the market.
Mr Somvang made the comment to Vientiane Times after giving a speech to open a seminar in Vientiane on the manufacture of goods for overseas markets, especially Japan. The country is one of the world's largest consumer nations.
At the one day seminar, 40 Lao business representatives learnt about case studies of Thai companies entering the Japanese market, hoping to gain useful information that they could apply to the production of goods for the Japanese market.
The seminar, titled “How Lao Companies Approach to Oversea Markets Mainly Japan” was made possible with financial support from the Asean Japan Centre, which is working to build the capacity of Asean firms to export goods to Japan.
The centre also facilitates links between Asean enterprises and Japanese companies so they can establish business cooperation.
According to Mr Somvang, Laos has the potential to export goods to Japan, especially handicrafts. These are now becoming popular in the country, which is a major production base for electronic goods and vehicles.
Few Japanese make handicrafts as the focus is on factory-produced goods, so handicrafts are considered luxury items, and create the potential for developing nations to export such goods to Japan.
Mr Somvang said that despite growing demand for handicraft products in Japan, Lao business operators need to learn about the tastes and preferences of the Japanese, and their values, so they can produce goods for which there will be a market.
He said that one of the major challenges for Lao businesses looking to export is that they believe their products are top quality and there is no need to consider market demand.
Mr Somvang said it is businesses that are playing a central role in boosting Laos' export value, not the government, as they are the ones producing the goods. He said the government's role was to facilitate private sector access to international markets.
“It is useless to urge the government to back the efforts of Lao businesses to export their products because they're not turning out attractive goods for overseas markets,” he said.
vientiane times
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