A week of Vietnam-Hanoi goods kicked off at the AEON Lake Town Mori in Japan’s Saitama prefecture on June 8 as part of a cooperation pact signed between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Hanoi authorities, and Japanese retail group AEON.

Japanese consumers select to buy Vietnamese dragon fruits
(Photo: VNA)

Joining the event are nearly 20 Vietnamese firms operating in the fields of garment-textile, food, household appliance, and interior decoration. Their display at the AEON Lake Town Mori is part of this year’s Vietnamese goods week programme, which is running across 40 AEON supermarkets and malls in Japan between June 4 and 10. The programme also features business networking, Vietnamese cuisine, and Vietnamese traditional music performances.

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Saitama, Ta Hoang Linh, Director of the MoIT’s European-American Market Department and head of the project on fostering Vietnamese businesses’ direct participation in foreign distribution systems, said Japan is an important partner of Vietnam with bilateral trade hitting about 38 billion USD in 2018. Vietnam has become an investment destination for Japanese firms in recent years, he added.

Linh said the MoIT signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the AEON group last year to facilitate Vietnamese companies in expanding their export markets and joining the global supply chain. 

Based on effective outcomes of the week of Vietnamese goods in 2018, this year’s edition is held, reflecting the strengthened collaboration between the two governments and their business communities, he stressed.

Toshiya Gotou, an official of the AEON group, said Japanese consumers are interested more in Vietnamese products and recommended Vietnamese firms to pay attention to pesticide issues related to their fresh farm produce.

AEON is committed to boosting the export turnover of Vietnamese products via its retail system to 500 million USD in 2020 and 1 billion USD in 2025, he said.

Director of the Hanoi Centre for Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion Nguyen Gia Phuong said the programme has enabled Vietnamese suppliers, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises, to showcase their products and exchange experience to meet AEON’s standards in Japan, and in some of the group’s key markets like China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.