Vietnamese brands are expected to shine in the global supply chain, said Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Tran Tuan Anh in a letter of congratulations to the country’s business community on Viet Nam Brand Day.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on 2008 agreed to mark April 20 every year as Viet Nam Brand Day, with an aim to honour and promote the nation’s brand and image in the context of international economic integration.

However, the ministry and the National Brand Council decided not to hold the commemorative activities this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anh in the letter said that the country has maintained high and sustainable economic growth. Last year, Viet Nam achieved impressive GDP growth of 7.02 per cent, surpassing the set target by the National Assembly and bringing the economy scale to more than US$262 billion – the highest level so far.

The achievement was partly attributed by the Vietnamese business community to build brands and reputation for the country’s goods and services to the regional and global levels.

However, the novel coronavirus outbreak has had impacts on the global economy in general and Viet Nam in particular, especially production, business, investment and trade activities.

Anh therefore expected that the business community should maintain unity to surpass the difficulties and stabilising production as soon as possible. Meanwhile, they should maintain and protect their brand names, contributing to enhance the Vietnamese trademark in the global supply chain.

The ministry has given support to firms in building, developing and improving their brand names, thus creating momentum for export activities and boosting production after the pandemic.

Many local companies found opportunities amid the COVID-19 pandemic to gradually affirm their brand names both in domestic and global markets.

For example, VNPT e-learning has provided a programme to nearly 12,000 schools nationwide with more than 400,000 teacher accounts and five million student accounts.

Meanwhile, many garment and textile companies, such as Vinatex and TNG, have affirmed their brands with face mask products in the local market and export to other countries.

Though the country now has 97 firms recognised as national brands out of 700,000, the number of such enterprises has been on the rise, showing their increasing interest in the programme.

Last year, the world’s leading independent brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance said Viet Nam National Brand was valued at $247 billion. — VNS