A wide range of wooden furniture products are on display at the Vietnam International Furniture and Home Accessories Fair 2015 (VIFA-EXPO 2015), which kicked off on March 11 in Ho Chi Minh City.

VIFA-EXPO 2015, held over four days by the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade and the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (HAWA), featured 180 Vietnamese enterprises across 900 stalls. The displayed products include wooden products, fine arts and interior decorations.

This year’s event also drew producers from 17 countries and territories including Belgium, Denmark, France, the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said that despite the ripple effects of the global economic recession, Vietnamese wooden product exports still grew by 11.5 percent with a value of 6.23 billion USD last year.

He said the results were spurred by businesses’ efforts to improve their brands and product quality while enhancing promotion activities for exports and market development.

The VIFA EXPO is organised annually with the intention to create favourable conditions for producers to enhance their marketing capacity, popularise brand names and seek trade partners and consumers.

Numerous programmes are scheduled to take place during the fair, such as Vietnam’s Apricot Award, conferences on increasing training quality for the wood processing sector, and advantages and challenges for exporting to the American market.-VNA