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Chinese market means “unlimited” opportunities to Vietnamese exporters
HANOI, Nov. 4, 2018 (BSS/Xinhua) – As a huge market and the “world
factory”, neighboring China offers Vietnamese exporters opportunities for a
diversity of products and services, ranging from sea food to software
services.
China is currently the largest importer of Vietnam’s tra fish, a grey-
backed white-bellied catfish grown in the Mekong River which has been over
the past decade a key export of the International Development & Investment
Corporation (IDI) under the multi-sector Sao Mai Group.
“China is near Vietnam, so transport for export is convenient. Chinese
gastronomy is also similar to the Vietnamese one, so China is one of our key
markets,” said Truong Vinh Thanh, Sao Mai’s deputy general director.
According to Thanh, the IDI started its march into the Chinese market by
providing tra fish to chefs in major Chinese cities years ago.
“Today, our tra fish are on the dining table in Beijing, Shanghai,
Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian and many other Chinese cities and provinces,”
Thanh said.
Tra fish prices in foreign markets have been rising over recent years,
delivering good news to Vietnam’s fishery and aquaculture industry.
“Therefore, we opened an office in Beijing last year to promote the sales of
tra fish and other products,” he said.
“With a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, China is a promising
market for seafood and tra fish in particular. We see a rosy future,” he
added.
Data from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers
(VASEP) show that Vietnam earned 1.6 billion U.S. dollars from exporting tra
fish in the first nine months of this year, with that earned from China
accounting for 23.7 percent.
In addition to traditional exports to China such as seafood, rice and
rubber, Vietnamese companies have also benefited a lot from high-tech
products.
“I have lived and worked in Shanghai for three years and really enjoyed my
life here,” said Tran Viet Linh, general manager of the Shanghai branch of
Vietnam’s FPT Software Company.
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“Shanghai has a long history in international trade, so the cultural,
economic environment are very open and friendly … Shanghai develops rapidly
and innovates consistently … It is very good for foreign companies and
their employees,” she said.
As one of the Vietnamese exhibitors at the first China International
Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in early November, the FPT Software Company
officially entered the Chinese market in 2017.
The Vietnamese newcomer mainly engaging in software outsourcing and
related services chose to open its first office in Shanghai, venue of the
import expo.
“China is a massive market and they have some of the biggest leading
fields in the world, including information technology, logistics and e-
commerce … but also it is a center of production as well as one for
exporting goods and services,” Linh said.
“Opportunities in the Chinese market, in my eyes, are unlimited,” she
noted.
On her company’s strategy, Linh said that it is to maximize the labor cost
advantage of Vietnam, with software projects largely implemented by FPT
engineers based in home.
“Depending on the need of specific projects and customers, we sometimes
send engineers to China to communicate face-to-face with customers. They are
responsible for understanding the customer expectation for the system and the
software development,” she added.
“In the first year, FPT Shanghai attracted customers with important long-
term projects,” Linh said. And this proves a right timing to enter the
Chinese market, and “the business is rapidly advancing and we strongly
believe in a bright future.”
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