Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang has stressed five main tasks of Vietnamese trade counsellors and minister-counsellors to develop overseas markets at a meeting with trade counsellors in Hanoi on December 16.

Accordingly, together with strengthening trade promotion and actively participating in trade promotion programmes in the host countries, the trade counsellors have to intensify Vietnam’s industrial promotion to attract investment in ongoing projects or those about to be implemented in the country.

They also have to fulfil their tasks as staff of a Vietnamese trade representative office abroad, and learn about the models of importers in the host countries before introducing the models to domestic businesses to help them change their appropriate products.

Minister Hoang said that Vietnam’s total export turnover for 2013 is about 132 billion USD, up 15.3 percent from the previous year, surpassing the target of 126.1 billion USD set by the National Assembly.

Vietnamese products are now available in nearly 200 countries and territories.

Despite declining prices of several commodities and the narrowing of several markets, many major exports of Vietnam still exceed the set target, including garments and textiles, footwear, wood and wood products, computers and electronic products, Hoang said.

The minister noted that in the time to come, the ministry will intensify the process of transferring the industrial product structure to improve added value and ensure quality and safety requirements.

Priority will also be given to mobilising all resources to invest in projects to produce more goods for export.
He added that the ministry will also support businesses to help them make full use of benefits brought by bilateral economic agreements and the free trade area agreement between ASEAN and other countries to boost exports.-VNA