First furniture-design expo to take place in Hanoi

Hanoi, May 20 (VNA) - After many years of success in Ho Chi Minh City, the organisers of the Vietnam Furniture and Home Furnishing Fair (VIFA Home) will hold a similar fair in Hanoi for the first time in August. To be called "VIFA Home Sai Gon", the fair is expected to attract 110 exhibitors from the southern region and northern traditional villages who will display products at 420 booths, said Huynh Van Hanh, Vice Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (Hawa). "VIFA Home Sai Gon will provide a platform for businesses in the wood processing industry to strengthen cooperation to improve their competitiveness and distribution system, enabling them to gain a firm foothold in the home market before the ASEAN Economic Community comes into effect by the end of the year," Hanh said. To be held at the National Exhibition Construction Centre from August 6 to 9, the fair will feature a wide range of outdoor and indoor wooden furniture, handicrafts and home decor, garden decor, consulting services for architecture and construction designs and other support services. Hawa Corp, the organisers of the fair, will launch an online showroom to help businesses introduce their products to customers at lower costs, Hanh said. All wooden products are made from legal timber sources and meet export standards, providing more choices for customers in the north, where Chinese furniture products are popular, Hanh said. Sales of wooden products in the domestic market reached an estimated 1.98 billion USD last year and are expected to be worth more than 2 billion USD this year, he said. Exports of wood and wood products were worth 1.52 billion USD in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 5.5 percent over the same period last year, and are expected to top 7.2 billion USD this year./.