Vietnam is expected to increase its export revenue from fine arts and handicrafts to US$821 billion in 2007, said the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).
The chamber, which is supporting the handicraft sector to improve design and marketing for stronger export growth, forecast the figures will reach US$997 million in 2008, US$1.2 billion in 2009 and US$1.5 billion in 2010. Total percentage increase for the 2006-10 period is estimated around 21.6 per cent.
However, to gain that growth, the sector has to remove a number of challenges, the VCCI said.
Officials from the chamber and local experts agreed that design copying and copyright disputes are now the biggest problems for Vietnamese handicrafts, hindering the development of fine arts production and export.
According to Dinh Manh Hung from the VCCI’S Centre for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Support, all enterprises just run after profit in the short term; they do not have long-term development strategies.
“They even did not want to spend time registering trademarks or designs even though the Law on Intellectual Property has become effective,” he said.
Meanwhile, the US, EU and Japan, the three biggest consumers of Vietnamese handicrafts, are choosy. The consumers there require not only good and beautiful products but also diversified and registered designs.
Experts have pointed out that Vietnamese enterprises always export what they have, not what the consumers want. They export products which do not appeal to the tastes of the consumers in the target markets.
In fact, Vietnamese enterprises lack information about the tastes of consumers, prices, rivals and tendencies in the world, information vital for exporters.
An expert stressed at the importance of issue intellectual property rights in fine arts and handicraft products, emphasizing that, without appropriate regulations, artisans may face charges of violating the rights of others, as well as the loss of rights to their own original designs.
The sector, besides, has experienced high transportation cost, poor design when enterprises are scattered and uncoordinated, and trade promotion is ineffective.
Recent seminar put forward seven measures to develop fine art and handicraft exports, including sustainable development of raw materials sources, establishing a design centre, boosting training for workers, granting incentives and loans for exporting enterprises, and organizing an international fine art and handicraft commercial exposition in Vietnam.
Last year, Vietnam raked in US$630 million from handicraft exports, up 10.8 per cent against 2005 but accounting for only 1.6 per cent of the country’s total export revenue.
Of the sum, some US$76.4 million came from the US, US$70.14 million from Japan and more than nearly US$300 million from EU countries. (Laborers)
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