Online trade promotion – key to overcome COVID-19 crisis

In the current context, online trade promotion is considered the key to help businesses overcome the COVID-19 crisis and complete the ecosystem of trade promotion using digital technology. According to Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam has been among first countries to accelerate trade promotion on digital platforms as well as online trade exchange activities in an effective manner.

The efforts have assisted businesses to considerably remove obstacles in markets because traditional trade promotion activities are unable to be organised amid COVID-10, he said. Phu held that speeding up digital transformation in trade promotion, along with the combination of direct and online activities has helped Vietnamese firms connect both domestic and foreign customers in a safe manner, thus ensuring businesses’ operations and contributing to increasing import-export activities of the country as well as the growth of the industry and trade sector in particular.

Right from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has promptly applied IT applications and social networks to set up regular connection channels among domestic exporters, trade associations, trade promotion agencies, Vietnamese trade offices and representative offices abroad, and foreign importers and partners.

Thanks to the regular and continuous information connectivity, a huge amount of information on import-export goods from domestic firms has been provided to foreign partners. The Vietrade has become the pioneer in applying online and hybrid trade promotion models in Vietnam. The agency has shared its experience to other agencies and businesses across the country. Hundreds of online trade promotion events have been held, generating certain outcomes.

This has proved that the renovated method is suitable to the current real situation amid complicated developments of the pandemic, and can replace traditional trade promotion method, helping Vietnam catch up with the global economic trend, according to Phu.

The Vietrade director underlined that online and hybrid trade promotion models are an optimal solution enabling businesses to approach markets, and a key for them to overcome the “COVID storm”. The activities will become an indispensable part of the trade promotion ecosystem using new technology, which will be a great help for enterprises, he added.