The fourth annual event will last four days from October 27-30 at Vietnam Exhibition & Fair Centre, gathering nearly 300 exhibitors from Hanoi and other localities nationwide including Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Thai Binh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ninh Binh and Nam Dinh.
The show will accommodate 700 pavilions in Buildings A1, A3 and D, showcasing five main groups of items: home décor and handicrafts, indoor and outdoor furniture, home textiles and embroidery, gifts and ethnic items, and personal accessories.
Over 85% of the booths belong to enterprises with huge export potential, which affirms the status and prestige of the fair, said Dao Thu Vinh, deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade.
There will also be a separate display area for the introduction of the prize winning handicraft product models in the design contests held on the sidelines of the show over the past three years, Vinh added.
According to Le Ba Ngoc, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Handicraft Exporters Association (Vietcraft), the 2014 show expects to welcome about 10,000 domestic commercial guests and roughly 600 foreign importers from 30 nations and territories around the world, focusing on major markets including the US, Japan, Australia, EU, Russia, Taiwan (China) and New Zealand.
International importers at the show with annual incomes exceeding US$100 million include Ian Snow Ltd, Scotts & Co. and Istok Ltd (Britain); Adonto and Sansiro (Brazil); Overstock and My Spirit Garden (USA); Komeri Co., Ltd (Japan); Gemini Overseas (India) and Home Retail Group (Hong Kong), Ngoc said.
He added that some preferential policies will be implemented to support the registered international importers including free visas and guest pick-up at airports, fact-finding tours to Hanoi’s famous craft villages, and free consultations on handicraft-related issues in Vietnam.
More than 150 booths will be arranged in Building A3 to exhibit sophisticated and well-designed products manufactured by enterprises in the ‘One Village One Product’ (OVOP) movement, both from Vietnam and other regional countries including Indonesia, Laos and Nepal.
The OVOP area has become an important highlight of the Hanoi Gift Show, brining prestige to the export community as well as to international buyers in the previous two editions. This year, OVOP will introduce several unique groups of items in fashion, tourism gifts, flowers and trademark building.
Following a ‘Vietnamese Pottery Space’ in 2013, OVOP 2014 will bring participants to a ‘Rattan and Bamboo Space’ with a wide range of both modern and traditional rattan and bamboo handicraft items being displayed on an area of 1,000sq.m.
The four-day event, co-organised by Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade and Vietcraft, provides an ideal platform for enterprises operating in the handicraft industry to advertise and introduce products to foreign importers with the aim of expanding markets and seeking new co-operative partners.
