The Vietnam Private Sector Economic Forum 2019 will be held May 2-3 at the National Convention Center in Hanoi. It is seen as an opportunity for government representatives to listen to private companies on the difficulties and barriers they face in business activities.

For the first time, many big distributors and leading retail groups such as Seafoodwatch (U.S.), Cargill (U.S.), Bluescope (Australia), Big C (Thailand), ABB (Switzerland), Mercadona (Italy) and Maruka (Japan) will attend the forum.

They will share their experiences in various fields, offering insights to Vietnamese firms competing in the global marketplace, and meet with potential purchasers and suppliers.

Seafoodwatch, which specializes in aquatic products and Cargill, an agricultural giant, have said that they would offer maximum support for Vietnamese enterprises in the same industry.

They will discuss quality assessment on fisheries products, focusing on various criteria and assessment conditions.

A Seafoodwatch representative said Vietnamese seafood is of good quality but the poor management of traceability and maintenance has resulted in local firms failing to meet the requirements in European and the U.S. markets.

In October 2017, the European Commission (EC) applied a "yellow card" warning on seafood from Vietnam after a number of Vietnamese fishing vessels were caught trespassing into other countries’ waters.

The yellow card means Vietnam’s fisheries exports have been subject to intense scrutiny, with all seafood containers being inspected in a process that could take three to four weeks and cost 500 euros ($633) per container. 

The EC had initially said it would remove the yellow card last June, and later said it would consider doing so in January this year. To date, this has not happened.

The private sector forum is hosted by the Government and the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, and co-organized by the Private Sector Development Committee, VnExpress and the IEC Group.