The International Trade Centre (ITC) is providing
Vietnamese home décor and giftware exporters with an opportunity to sell their
products to more than 1,000 international buyers. The LifeStyle Viet Nam 2011
trade fair, which is being held 18 – 21 April in Ho Chi Minh City, is expected
to attract buyers from Europe, the United States, Japan, China, Australia and
elsewhere.
“Vietnamese exporters will be able to connect with new
buyers and create new business relations, thereby creating opportunities for
thousands of handicraft-producing households, as well as for the farmers who
produce the raw materials,” said ITC Executive Director
Patricia R. Francis.
The trade fair is organized by Vietcraft, the Viet Nam
Handicraft Exporters Association. Vendors
will host 800 booths displaying a wide range of handicrafts, furniture and
other hand-made home décor.
LifeStyle is being supported by ITC through a rural
development programme, run in conjunction with Vietcraft, which targets 4,800
poor households in four Northern Vietnamese provinces.
The programme, ‘Green Production and Trade to Increase
Income and Employment Opportunities for the Rural Poor,’ is creating pro-poor
and environmentally-sustainable green value chains that will enable producers to
raise the quality of their goods and improve their links with more profitable
markets. A number of United Nations organizations are involved, with ITC acting
as lead agency.
The programme is financed by the Spanish MDG Fund and
will particularly benefit women, who are traditionally more involved in craft
production.
The Vietnamese handicrafts sector is mainly
export-oriented and is internationally recognized as one of the most
competitive emerging markets for bulk supply. Viet Nam is second only to China
as an exporter of home décor items to the European Union.
In order to be able to reach a higher end of the
market, many producers need to upgrade their designs, quality and finishing
techniques, and be aware of current design and consumer trends. To address this
challenge, ITC and Vietcraft provided a team of designers to help some 18
companies develop new “sustainable” product ranges. These new collections will
be on display at LifeStyle Viet Nam. ITC is the joint agency of WTO and the UN
and is devoted to helping SMEs in developing countries become more competitive
in global markets and thus to speed up sustainable economic development and
contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
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