Part 4: Great opportunities for exportation
In the past few years, many enterprises in Binh Duong have made full use of resources from APEC to invest capital in production and business to member economies and gain great success.
Opportunities made use of
Tran Thi My Van, communications representative of Acecook Vietnam Joint Stock Company in Thuan An Town, said that in parallel with serving the domestic market, Acecook's products are currently exported to 47 countries and territories in the world. Making use of APEC's advantages, Acecook Vietnam has shifted its focus to intra-regional markets in the near future. Although it is very difficult in this market, Acecook is still targeting the APEC member markets.
Five years ago, UniExport Import - Export Company in Bac Tan Uyen District, specializing in pressed wood products and clean energy stone to reduce the emission to the environment, has decided to expand the conquering of APEC markets. To date, in addition to the traditional markets of Japan, Korea and China, the company has exported to most of APEC members. In 2016, the total sales of the company reached US$ 60 million, of which Japan and South Korea were accounted for 90%, the remaining was from the US market, Malaysia and many more. The goal of UniExport in the next 2 years is to achieve over US$ 100 million. To do that, the company will increase its presence in the APEC markets. "In addition to the export products that are eligible for tax incentives, the company also wants to take advantage of logistics costs and seek raw materials from member nations, and to establish branch companies in APEC," said Nguyen Duc Hau, chief executive of UniExport.
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Sang Ban Mai Joint Stock Company is one of the companies in Binh Duong Province to have various orders to APEC members. Photo: Xuan Thi
Many years ago, enterprises of the Binh Duong Mechanical and Electrical Association actively participated in trade fairs and trade promotion activities of some APEC members in order to find ways to dominate the market, including Sang Ban Mai Joint Stock Company in Ben Cat Town and Nghe Nang JSC in Thuan An Town. With modern technology, competitive goods are not inferior to those of European and Japanese companies but prices are competitive. Both Ban Mai and Nghe Nang have won big contracts and quickly gained trust of customers in this market. Sang Ban Mai is the first Vietnamese company to successfully manufacture generators with a capacity of 2,500 KVA in accordance with European standards at 30% cheaper than imported goods. After installing and operating successfully 2,500 KVA generators in the Binh Duong Province Administration Center, the company continues to win the bid to install large capacity generators for many enterprises and large administrative centers in the country. In addition, the company is constantly seeking new markets overseas and determined to make ambitious exports of power generators to APEC members.
Many challenges
Globalization and economic integration are indispensable and increasingly widespread with multilateral and regional mechanism. Over the course of 25 years of establishment and development, APEC has affirmed its position and leadership role in the process of economic growth and global integration. After nearly 20 years of joining APEC, Vietnam has actively participated in the cooperation process of this forum. APEC has been bringing to the member economies, including Vietnam many opportunities for development, but also many challenges for domestic enterprises await.
APEC is not only a key export market for domestic enterprises, but members of the group are also important partners of importers to meet the demand for raw materials and consumer goods, particularly, machinery, equipment, means of transport and spare parts in order to actively serve the increasing production and business activities in the country. The important commitments on trade liberalization and facilitation within APEC have had a positive and direct impact on the import activities of enterprises with APEC member economies. In particular, APEC will focus on capacity building through projects within the framework of the Ecotech Program, facilitating the movement of business people by ABTCs, cooperation on health, education, and APEC scholarship fund. This is a great condition for Binh Duong's businesses to improve their capacity and seek investment opportunities in APEC members.
In addition to the benefits and opportunities that APEC brings to the bilateral relationship, Binh Duong enterprises face many difficulties and challenges. APEC members, in addition to active cooperation, have fierce competition in trade and investment relations. Vietnam has a far distance in terms of development level compared to many members of APEC so it is inevitable that the competition will be in the international and domestic markets. In fact, most of the enterprises in Binh Duong are small and medium scale with limited technologies, management methods, and initiative business strategies.
It can be said, together with the continuous growth of the business community in Binh Duong in particular and Vietnam in general, the domestic goods spread to the region and APEC is not far away, but now it is the opportunity for domestic enterprises to show their skills in the APEC markets. In the context of international economic integration in general and cooperation in APEC in particular, especially in 2017, Vietnam hosted the second APEC Summit in addition to the efforts of the government in governance and development orientation within the framework of APEC conferences, enterprises also need to actively seize the opportunities for investment and business operations in order to maximize benefits and strengthen the connection with the APEC partners. Only in this way can businesses help expand the market, increasing production capacity and business operations and expand the investment to APEC members.
(To be continued)
Reported by Khanh Vinh – Translated by Vi Bao
