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Foreign tourists enjoy a boat tour on Cai Rang floating market in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho (Photo courtesy of Tuoi Tre)

Local businesses called for more information while doing businesses overseas during a Wednesday meeting with 21 newly-appointed Vietnamese ambassadors and consuls in Ho Chi Minh City.

Representatives from Vietnamese companies, especially export firms, said they wanted Vietnamese embassies and consulates to provide more detailed and useful information about destination countries in order to promote trade and tourism.

Nguyen Van Phong, the deputy chairman of Tien Giang Province, said the Mekong Delta province had a lot of untapped potential, but local businesses found it hard to export their products.

“They need more information about foreign markets so they can make the right decision in their business,” he said.

“We can produce what they need, but they may not buy what we sell,” Vo Quoc Viet from the People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta of Ca Mau said.

Some entrepreneurs complained that it was hard to contact Vietnamese embassies and consulates overseas.

“It is difficult for us to reach them via telephone or email,” said Vo Son Dien from southern Binh Duong-based Becamex Company.

Senior officials of the Mekong Delta provinces also required Vietnamese diplomatic agencies to join hands to promote eco-tourism in order to draw more foreign tourists to Vietnam.

For their part, ambassadors and consuls said a series of activities would be held to promote trade and tourism abroad in the coming time.

They also suggested that local companies expand their business in new markets.

“The remote areas are usually where you can make big money,” said Vietnamese Ambassador in Pakistan, Nguyen Viet Hung.

He said Vietnamese exports to Pakistan valued at US$200 million last year, up from zero in 2006.

Hung suggested Ho Chi Minh City opened a direct flight route to India’s Mumbai during a meeting with HCMC officials on Tuesday.

Tuoi Tre, Vietnews Online

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