HCMC – Woodwork and handicraft exporters were not as happy as in previous years when the International Furniture and Handicraft Fair and Exhibition, or Expo 2010, wrapped up on Sunday, indicating the global economy is not out of the woods yet.
The five-day furniture and handicraft show featured a host of other trade promotion activities like seminars and business matching sessions but the number of deals either signed or initialed was less than expected.
Le Phuc Thinh, a manager of rattan and water hyacinth maker Saigonpalm Co., said his company had secured contracts with two or three foreign buyers while last year, at the height of the global financial crisis, there were more deals.
Similarly, a sales woman of Gia Nhien Co, which produces hand-made boats and ships said she had got no major foreign buyers. “In the 2009 expo, I worked with at least six foreign buyers. For three days at the 2010 exhibition, I sold some small boats to visitors.”
An official at the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade said less foreign buyers had visited this year’s event given slackened global demand. The previous editions of the annual show attracted delegations from Japan and European countries like Spain and Germany.
The expo is a convergence point for local wood and handicraft processors and international buyers and this year, organizers pinned high hopes on the latest exhibition as demand in key markets recovered in the first and second quarters.
Meanwhile, wood and handicraft makers had seen signs of weakening demand in the U.S. and European countries. In the first six months of the year, total woodwork export revenue was US$1.5 billion, up 33% from the same period last year.
But exporters have begun to worry about a decline in contracts and the situation is forecast to worsen in the coming months.
In late September exports dropped by US$20 million from August to US$280 million.
Tran Vinh Nhung, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade as a co-organizer and head of the organizing committee, said letters of invitation had been sent to regular buyers and Vietnam’s commercial sections around the world.
Exhibitors have blamed a lower-than-expected buyer turnout on the still-gloomy prospects in key export markets, he said.
However, Dang Quoc Hung, vice chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCMC (HAWA), also a co-organizer, said he was not concerned about this.
“I’ve talked with exhibitors and I think that the outlook is not that gloomy. Many HAWA members lured large numbers of visitors, including potential buyers,” Hung said. “But to ensure greater success for next year’s expo, organizers will need to improve visitor services and publicity in international media.”
WWF highlights faunal, floral discoveries in Mekong
By Binh Nguyen
The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released a report on the new faunal and floral discoveries in Vietnam and other parts of the Greater Mekong last year.
The findings reaffirm the region encompassing Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern province of Yunnan as one of the most significant biological hotspots on the planet.
A seven-meter tall carnivorous plant, a fish with vampire fangs and a frog that sounds like a cricket are among the 145 new species in the report entitled “New Blood: Greater Mekong new species discoveries 2009”.
Five new mammal species, two bats and three shrews, a poisonous pit viper and an entirely new genus of fang-less snake are the other new species discovered in the Greater Mekong.
The WWF Greater Mekong said the report revealed an average of three new species recorded by science each week including Asia’s only bald songbird the bare-faced bulbul, and the uniquely adapted Sucker-fish, which uses its body to suck onto rocks in fast flowing waters to move upstream.
“Each year, the new species count keeps going up, and with it, so too does the responsibility to ensure this region’s unique biodiversity is conserved,” Stuart Chapman, conservation director of WWF Greater Mekong, said in a statement obtained by the Daily last week.
According to the report, the new discoveries underline the Greater Mekong’s rich biodiversity but also pinpoint the fragility of the region’s diverse habitats and species. The report point outs the likely local extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam as one tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in recent times.
The opportunity also stands out in the report for governments of the Greater Mekong to access funds through the Global Environment Facility, the global financing mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity, to conserve species, biodiversity and healthy ecosystems across the region.
