The newly-approved 2015 national trade promotion programme worth 100 billion VND (4.7 million USD) has been highly acclaimed by businesses, bankers, and localities across the country.

The programme covers 212 projects involving the expansion of markets at home and abroad, trade promotion in economic zones, training for businesses, cooperatives and marketing organisations.

It will also focus on the domestic market, including establishing distribution channels in rural, mountainous and border areas, which is in part to spread the campaign “Vietnamese prioritise Vietnamese goods”.

During a conference in Hanoi on January 9 to review the 2014 national trade promotion programme and launch tasks for 2015, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai urged firms to seize opportunities offered by upcoming free trade agreements with the European Union, the Republic of Korea, the Union of Customs of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, among other deals.

Reviewing the 2014 performance, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) Ta Hoang Linh said his agency gave forecasts on domestic and foreign markets and held trips to exhibitions and fairs abroad for Vietnamese enterprises and vice versa.

It also offered assistance to businesses, especially those engaging in agro-forestry-fisheries and the processing industry, in seeking additional export markets and expanding local market shares, he added.-VNA