Danish businesses are being helped to develop strong and long-lasting business partnerships with Vietnamese companies to their mutual benefits, said Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Peter Lysholt Hansen.

At a half-day seminar on Vietnamese-Danish partnership in producing environmentally-friendly building materials, printing and packaging held in Hanoi on October 6, the Danish ambassador said the 85 million-strong Vietnamese market is posing both opportunities and challenges to Danish businesses, adding it now possesses many advantages such as high economic growth and a young and highly-skilled labour force.

Vietnam’s focus on adopting environmentally-friendly business strategies have helped facilitate the production and sales of environmentally-friendly construction materials as well as brought benefits to the printing and packaging industry, he added.

According to Pham Van Bac, Vice Head of the Ministry of Construction’s Building Materials Department, Vietnam's building materials market is attracting investors due to a large consumption scope and the increasing demands of the infrastructure and housing construction industries.

Christian Hvass, the Managing Director of Reproflex Vietnam, a joint venture between Denmark and Vietnam offering printing solutions, shared his views on the advantages of doing business in Vietnam such as rapid market growth, its convenient geographical position in the Asia-Pacific region and low labour costs.

According to Hvass, the presence of big names from overseas, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Friesland Foods, together with famous local brands such as Vinamilk and Trung Nguyen (Central Highlands) Coffee, has created a vast potential market for the printing and packaging industry.

However, language differences, poor infrastructure, the instability and high cost of internet connections and electricity supplies, the high rate of inflation and complicated administrative procedures pose considerable challenges for Danish enterprises wishing to do business in Vietnam, he added.

The seminar is part of a programme of activities for the 18-strong Danish business delegation, who are in Vietnam to explore possible business opportunities from October 6-11. (VNA)