HCM City (VNA) – The 17th Vietnam International Printing, Packaging and Food Processing Industry Exhibition began at the Saigon Exhibition & Conference Centre in Ho Chi Minh City on October 5.

The 4-day event features 480 stalls operated by 300 firms from 11 countries and territories, including Canada, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

A wide range of printing and packaging machines, technologies and materials are on display at the fair.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Van Dong, head of the Vietnam Printing Association, said thanks to higher demand in domestic production and export, the printing and packaging industry in Vietnam has recorded upbeat growth in recent years, at an annual average of 15-20 percent.

According to him, printing-packaging serving the food processing industry will grow about 38 percent between 2015 and 2020.

Pham Xuan Da, head of the southern office of the Ministry of Science and Technology, stressed that the exhibition is an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to learn from and form partnerships with their foreign peers.-VNA