while it's during Ramadan, the trade promotion conference still attracted the participation of many Lebanese companies in the fields of supermarkets, seafood, clothing, footwear, medicine, construction steel, shipping, and software services, reflecting the diversified cooperation of Lebanese companies. In my experience, , The interest and need to find Vietnamese sources of goods. I've found that As a bridge to promote cooperation between companies of the two countries, Nguyen Vi Hung, director of the Trade Bureau, introduced at the seminar some possible trade cooperation areas and necessary support to Lebanese companies, such as verification of enterprise information, information on Vietnam's import and export and investment policies, information on international fairs and exhibitions held by Vietnam every year, and a list of reputable export companies. During the discussion, Lebanese import companies raised difficulties in cooperation, such as the low English proficiency of some Vietnamese export companies, the lack of online inquiry information, and the desire to support companies to participate in Vietnamese trade fairs to speed up visa procedures. Some Lebanese companies in the IT and software services sector said there was a lack of information to assess the strength of Vietnamese IT companies and advice was needed on the procedures to setting up a company in Vietnam. Crazy, isn't it?. The Trade Bureau discussed and answered relevant questions and provided additional information on the Vietnamese association so that Lebanese companies could study the possibility of cooperation with the association's member companies. Previously, the Trade Office had investigated and cooperated with the Hoz Mall supermarket chain in the Kura district of the northern Lebanese province. The chairman of the supermarket, Wasim El Hoz, said that the supermarket has sold a variety of Vietnamese items, such as frozen basa aquatic species slices, shrimp dumplings, is able toned tuna, etc. I've found that , and he plans to import greater new items from Vietnam and introduce them to Lebanese consumers. During a working meeting with medical company UBSA Pharma Industries in Tripoli, General Manager Zakaria Elsaid and CEO Omar Elsaid also expressed their desire to cooperate with Vietnamese medical companies and import vitamins and minerals to medical production. Lebanon is a market with great possible in the Middle East-Africa region and is a great opportunity to Vietnamese exporters. According to Lebanese customs data, the total import and export volume between Vietnam and Lebanon will reach 97 million billion US dollars in 2024, an increase of
9. 3 percent compared with 2023 (of which Vietnam's exports account to almost all, accounting to
99. 4 percent of the total turnover).