Agricultural products on display at a trade promotional event held last year in the central province of Khanh Hoa. (Photo: VNA) The ministry said there is still untapped potential in the domestic market asthe country's population reaches the 100 million mark.
To realise this potential, the MoIT said businesses must invest in developingcommercial platforms, especially digital sales channels.
The government has been reviewing current regulations to help streamline tradeactivities across the country's many regions. According to the ministry, a toppriority is improving connectivity and collaboration between Vietnam's majorproduction centres.
The ministry called for greater trade support for domestic businesses,especially small-to-medium-sized businesses, household businesses andcooperatives, saying they are in dire need of guidance and financial capital insetting up their sales and distribution channels.
The MoIT said the government encourages the private sector to participate indeveloping trade infrastructures such as markets, mini markets and conveniencestores, especially in remote and poor regions.
A key solution to helping undeveloped regions to gain access to consumersnationwide, said the ministry, is to support them in building their own orgranting them access to digital commerce platforms.
According to the ministry, digital sales channels are to play a vital role indeveloping organic agricultural production, a circular economy and moreefficient production, distribution and consumption.
Since the beginning of the year, the MoIT, in collaboration with severalministries and governmental agencies, has held numerous trade promotion eventsfor Vietnamese products.
"Traditionally, there are more of such events held toward the end of theyear, but this year we wanted to start earlier to help producers with sales,which would make it easier for them to maintain their operation," said anofficial from the ministry.
For example, with the MoIT's support, farmers could put their oranges on theshelves of major retailers with stores all across the country, such asCo-opmart.
In addition, several large digital commerce platforms, including Lazada, havebeen working alongside farmers to help push sales of Vietnamese agriculturalproducts.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the country's totalretail value for January was estimated at nearly 500 trillion VND, a 6%decrease from the same period last year.
The office said the economy is poised to bring its retail value back to thepre-pandemic level in the first quarter of 2023./.
VNA
