The event was jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Industry Agency and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, with sponsorship from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the database aims to boost business-to-business connectivity, including between domestic and foreign enterprises.

Its goal is to help companies and investors to swiftly find accurate information, thus facilitating partnerships and increasing opportunities for cooperation between Vietnamese companies and multilateral companies, he noted.

The system will prove itself even more useful given that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-facepartnership activities, he went on, and will help companies seize the opportunities generated by the new-generation free trade agreements that Vietnam has signed, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Support industries have been a magnet for foreign investment in Vietnam but links in production chains remain slack and local firms are still struggling to match supply and demand.

The Industry Agency has updated the database with information on 500 companies in mechanical engineering, 347 in the auto industry, 750 in the electronics sector, 1,145 in textile and garment production, and 910 in leather and footwear manufacturing.

IFC Country Manager for Vietnam Kyle Kelhofer said that the database takes its debut just as COVID-19 is having a major impact on global value chains.

Enhancements to links between domestic and multilateral companies via the database, along with Vietnam’s stable and low-risk business climate which was confirmed by its success in swiftly controlling COVID-19, promise to help assert the country as a key processing and manufacturing hub in the region, he noted.