The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry – HCM City Branch (VCCI-HCM), in collaboration with the China Foreign Trade Centre, held a conference on Wednesday to introduce the 125th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and a business exchange between Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises.

The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair, with more than 25,000 exhibitors and about 200,000 buyers expected to attend.

The fair is divided into three phases. Phase 1 from April 15-19 will show electrical and electronic products, vehicles, building materials and industrial products, while Phase 2 from April 23-27 will show labour-intensive products such as groceries, ornaments, toys, gifts, and furniture.

Stationery, clothing, footwear, bags, and human food and medicine will be exhibited in Phase 3 from May 1-5.

According to the VCCI-HCM, China remains Viet Nam’s largest trade partner, and the latter surpasses Malaysia to become the biggest trade partner of the former in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Last year, two-way trade exceeded US$106 billion, up 14 per cent year-on-year, of which $41 billion came from Viet Nam’s exports, up 16 per cent.

The structure of Viet Nam’s exports to China has positively changed towards gradually increasing the proportion of manufactured products and agro-forestry-aquatic products and decreasing the proportion of raw materials, fuels and minerals. — VNS