This year’s Fair featured nearly 50 booths of Vietnamese and Thai enterprises, showcasing a diverse range of high-quality products such as coffee, footwear, agricultural produce, confectionery, and more.
In his opening speech, Vietnamese Consul General to Khon Kaen Dinh Hoang Linh emphasised that in 2025, Viet Nam–Thailand relations was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, opening a new chapter in bilateral ties and creating a foundation and opportunities for cooperation across all areas. Among them, trade relations between the two countries remain a bright prospect. Thailand continues to be Viet Nam’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and both sides are aiming to raise two-way trade turnover to 25 billion USD in the coming years.
He affirmed that Northeastern Thailand is a potential market with a population of 22 million, around 100,000 overseas Vietnamese living stable lives, and many successful entrepreneurs with wide networks across the region. The area also holds a favourable position for connecting to central Viet Nam via the East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC), an important link for advancing the “Three Connectivity” strategy in supply chains, transport infrastructure, and socio-cultural exchanges.
The Fair aimed to introduce brands and promote quality goods and services from Viet Nam and Thailand, thereby boosting supply chain linkages and creating opportunities for businesses from both countries to engage more deeply in regional production and consumption networks.
Consul General Dinh Hoang Linh stressed that enthusiastic participation in the Fair vividly reflected the vision and determination of the private economy in general, and Vietnamese young entrepreneurs in particular, to enhance regional integration, expand globally, build value chains, strengthen brands, and project the entrepreneurial spirit of Viet Nam in line with the mission entrusted by the Party and the State in the new era.
Speaking at the opening of the Fair, Ho Van Lam, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Abroad and President of the Thai–Viet Nam Entrepreneurs Association in Thailand, noted that in recent years, Viet Nam–Thailand cooperation has been growing robustly across many areas, especially in economy and trade.
This year’s Fair gathered many booths from Vietnamese and Thai enterprises, offering a wide range of high-quality products. It provided an excellent opportunity for businesses to promote brands, seek partners, expand markets, and for consumers to access reputable products at reasonable prices.
Ho Van Lam stressed that the Fair was not only a meaningful trade promotion activity but also a bridge of cultural, economic, and friendship exchanges between the two neighbouring ASEAN countries. He expressed his belief that through this Fair, Viet Nam–Thailand trade cooperation would be further strengthened and developed sustainably, contributing to the socio-economic growth of both countries.
Yuthaphon Somlim, Director of the Udon Thani Department of Commerce, noted that the Thai Ministry of Commerce’s mission was to develop regional economy and trade, expand markets for goods and products, and establish distribution channels for enterprises. She said Udon Thani Province currently has an industrial zone for investors in the Northeastern Special Economic Corridor, offering incentives such as import tax exemptions or reductions and corporate income tax reductions. The province also has logistics service centres for storage, goods management, distribution, and transportation, as well as one-stop service centres to support enterprises. These are all favourable conditions for businesses of both countries to promote investment and trade cooperation.
Attending the opening ceremony, Nguyen Tri Quang, Member of the Presidium of the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneurs Association and Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Young Entrepreneurs Association, stressed that the Viet Nam–Northeastern Thailand Goods Fair not only expanded trade opportunities but also served as a practical activity to realise the message of globalising Vietnamese values, bringing Vietnamese products and services closer to international consumers, and creating a sustainable trade bridge between the enterprises of the two countries.
He affirmed that with dynamism and creativity, the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneurs Association was committed to accompanying Thai enterprises in promoting bilateral trade, investment cooperation, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. He hoped that from the connections at this Fair, many new cooperative projects would be established, contributing to increasingly close, effective, and practical Viet Nam–Thailand relations.
On this occasion, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Thai–Viet Nam Entrepreneurs Association in Thailand and several Vietnamese enterprises.
