Vu Ba Phu - Director, Trade Promotion Agency Ministry of Industry and Trade

In the past two years, we had to deal with disrupted supply chains and international trade, making trade promotion activities difficult. Meanwhile, most traditional trade promotion activities that require direct exchanges between suppliers, distributors, buyers, and other partners could be carried out.

Many trade promotion activities have been carefully prepared by participating organisations and businesses but had to be cancelled unexpectedly due to the pandemic, causing severe financial and human losses.

With the task of supporting businesses to maintain connections with partners, develop domestic and export markets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has made efforts to find solutions and quickly transform trade promotion, of which most of these solutions circled around IT application. The MoIT also quickly used IT applications and social networks to connect between domestic exporters, industry associations, trade promotion organisations, and foreign partners, among others.

Through regular and continuous updates, data on thousands of traded goods has been provided to foreign partners. The promotion of digital transformation in trade promotion combining online and offline has helped Vietnamese businesses both approach domestic and international customers while ensuring pandemic prevention, thereby contributing to ensuring production and business activities of enterprises and the growth of industry and trade.

During the implementation process, the national trade promotion system, as well as the business community, participated in activities on digital platforms, which offered various advantages with the participation and support of state management agencies.

After more than a year of implementation, online and hybrid trade promotions are the optimal solution for businesses to access the market in the context of the lasting pandemic. These activities are an indispensable part of the trade promotion ecosystem, effectively supporting businesses. Those businesses that are participating in digital transformation will gradually understand the concept and get used to exploiting digital platforms in trade promotion activities.

However, to fully take advantage of online export promotion, businesses need to regularly learn more about and update themselves on online trade promotion trends. Along with that, enterprises must identify the need for IT application and digital transformation in production, business, and export activities to develop a specific roadmap for their digital transformation activities. Many small- and medium-sized enterprises remain confused and do not know where to start, even seem to be afraid to change because they do not understand the nature of digital transformation activities and IT applications for successful export promotion.

Online export promotion, in addition to bringing many advantages, also bears many potential risks of information authentication that inexperienced businesses may not yet have recognised. Therefore, in addition to mastering online trade promotion skills, businesses need to flexibly apply and combine face-to-face and online forms to establish a multi-dimensional perspective on customers and markets and increase capacity to respond to any situation.

New models of marketing and promotion have brought certain successes, but the shift to market access from direct to online models also has some disadvantages. In carrying out marketing activities, many Vietnamese enterprises have not learned carefully about their partners they intend to trade within the virtual space. To overcome this, businesses need support from overseas Vietnamese and embassies, as well as the provincial and city government departments. When implementing online trade promotion, it is necessary to have a close association to avoid risks for businesses.

In 2022, to assert the effectiveness and replicate new trade promotion models, the MoIT asked the prime minister to promote the application of IT and digital transformation in trade promotion activities. The project is summarised and reported by units of the Government Office to the prime minister, and it is expected that he will sign and issue a decision approving this approach. With such support, the Trade Promotion Agency continues to carry out a series of online and hybrid trade promotion activities, mobilising businesses across the country to experience digital transformation in trade promotion and benefit from the model.