Diplomats Actively Help Local Enterprises Integrate into International Economy

“The diplomatic sector plays an important role to the national economic development. In the global fiercer competition, assistance and supports from diplomatic agencies is very necessary, helping protect benefits of enterprises and speed up economic development”, said Mr. Vu Tien Loc, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)at the meeting with heads of Vietnamese overseas diplomatic agencies and representatives of northern enterprises jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on December 9 on the sideline of the 26th diplomatic sector conference.   

 

More than 150 representatives of enterprises, northern businesses’ associations held talks with ambassadors and heads of Vietnamese representative offices abroad about the significance and role of "support", "bridge ", "catalysis ", " favourable conditions" for Vietnamese enterprises’ business activities abroad and seeking partners for foreign businesses who want to run a business in Vietnam. Enterprises were also provided with new information about the markets (the US, Japan, EU, China, Russia) and other potential markets including the Middle East, Africa, and Northern Europe. 

 

The top leader of VCCI, which represents businesses’ communities, Mr. Vu Tien Loc expressed his hope to receive more assistance from Vietnamese representative offices abroad.

 

According to Mr Loc, enterprises are very interested in lobby-related issues in the national economy generally and key sectors particularly. However, lobby is only successful if there is assistance and cooperation from Vietnamese representative offices abroad. At present, lobby has not been popular in Vietnam and therefore Vietnamese enterprises are at a disadvantage compared with foreign partners, especially when they run business abroad. 

 

In addition, one issue that had been mentioned at lots of early conferences is that most Vietnamese enterprises are in lack of timely information about market trend and partners. When Vietnamese enterprises run a business abroad, they need Vietnamese representative offices abroad to provide them with timely and exact information about the market and their partners as well as give them forecasts, advices and trend of potential products and advanced technology… 

 

Another important issue that was discussed at the conference was that Vietnamese enterprises lack information about technical barriers. The issue is very important in global integration. Many Vietnamese enterprises had met with the problem. Mr Loc urged Vietnamese representative offices abroad to provide Vietnamese enterprises with timely and exact information and assist them in trade disputes to help them prevent possible risks and protect their benefits.

 

Moreover, another issue is that Vietnamese enterprises often meet with problems including cumbersome administrative procedures in CEO recruitment at markets that treat Vietnamese enterprises unequal such as Peru, Turkey, UAE … Vietnamese representative offices should meet and hold talks with local countries to help Vietnamese enterprises more easily enter the markets and seek local partners.  

 

In addition, it is necessary that Vietnamese representative offices abroad should boost cooperation with local governmental agencies, commercial chambers, and enterprises to set up an agency to support Vietnamese enterprises and promote business cooperation activities with local enterprises. Also, it is high time for Vietnamese enterprises to actively study foreign markets and establish their representative offices abroad to upgrade timely information about the local markets and seek local partners.  

 

In fact, lots of Vietnamese enterprises had spent much time and money on awards from foreign agencies and organisations. However, these awards had not helped the enterprises much in their business activities. Vietnamese representative offices abroad should give warnings to Vietnamese enterprises to help them prevent meaningless risks.