HCM City's 2025 Sourcing Fairs Connect Vietnamese Suppliers With Global Buyers

Factory Suppliers and Global Retailers Meet in HCM City

More than 300 prearranged meetings between major manufacturers and 100 Vietnamese supporting industry suppliers are at the centre of Ho Chi Minh City's 2025 push to connect local businesses with global supply chains. The eighth Sourcing Fair of Supporting Industry with Buyers, known as SFS 2025, brings together 20 foreign companies and large Vietnamese manufacturers at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC).

The participating manufacturers work in electronics, home appliances, automotive production, mechanical engineering, aerospace and medical equipment. Supporting industry businesses make the parts, materials and components that other companies use to manufacture finished products. For these suppliers, meeting a purchasing manager can be a first step toward becoming part of a much larger production network.

A separate event at SECC, Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam 2025, brings together more than 400 exhibitors across 500 booths, with approximately 30,000 products meeting export standards. It expects more than 10,000 buyers, sourcing agents and retailers. Its focus stretches from fashion and accessories to home decor, gifts and consumer electronics.

The events serve different parts of the same commercial process: helping businesses find suppliers, inspect products and discuss purchasing requirements. Their programmes combine exhibitions with business matching, workshops, seminars and fashion shows, giving Vietnamese companies opportunities for direct market access and exchanges about technology and production.

As of July 5, 2025, another major gathering, Vietnam International Sourcing, is scheduled for September. Together, these events reflect HCM City's ambition to become a stronger centre for international sourcing and Vietnam's broader effort to bring domestic businesses into global manufacturing and export networks.

What the Two SECC Fairs Bring Together

SFS 2025 concentrates on practical connections between component suppliers and larger manufacturers. Its more than 300 scheduled networking sessions use a hybrid format, combining participation in person and online. The programme gives the 100 Vietnamese suppliers opportunities to present their production capabilities to companies that could use their parts.

Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam 2025 has a wider consumer product focus. Exhibitors represent India, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, the Philippines, South Korea, the Netherlands and Vietnam. Buyers are expected from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, China, Japan and South Korea.

The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, the Saigon Hi-Tech Park Management Board and the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority provide institutional support through their roles as coorganisers. Their involvement connects the sourcing programme with the city's industrial development priorities and national industrial policy.

For buyers, the exhibitions provide a place to compare products and discuss requirements directly with suppliers. For Vietnamese manufacturers, the same conversations offer a clearer view of what international customers need before placing orders, from product specifications to production capacity.

Why Buyers Are Looking at Vietnam

Vietnam's appeal as a sourcing destination rests on a stable political environment, competitive production costs, a skilled workforce and a regulatory framework that supports business. Its location in Southeast Asia and open business environment also provide access to regional and global markets.

Shifting trade policies, rising tariffs and geopolitical tensions are encouraging international companies to diversify their supply chains. In practical terms, diversification means buying from a wider range of suppliers or production locations instead of depending heavily on one market.

Vietnamese suppliers can offer varied products in small order quantities. That flexibility matters particularly to small and medium enterprises, which may need fewer goods at a time and want to limit the money tied up in unsold stock. Suppliers participating in the fairs undergo vetting for compliance with international certifications and requirements, including ISO, CE, GOTS and OEKO-TEX, for markets such as the United States, the European Union, Australia and the Middle East.

Sam Hui, vice president of Global Sources, described the fair as a place for companies to build new sourcing relationships while responding to international uncertainty:

As companies face unprecedented challenges and strive to diversify their supply chains, this event becomes the critical platform where global buyers and top-tier manufacturers from Vietnam and Asia come together to forge transformative partnerships. It is an unparalleled opportunity to secure the future of international trade, drive innovation, and unlock new avenues for growth.

Business Meetings Put Supplier Capabilities to the Test

The SFS initiative has connected more than 136 enterprises with foreign investment and manufacturers of finished products with 470 small and medium Vietnamese supporting industry businesses over successive editions. Those connections have involved more than 2,100 networking sessions held in person.

The 2025 programme continues that approach through its more than 300 prearranged hybrid meetings. Across the sourcing events, an estimated 3,000 direct networking sessions are planned. The figures describe different parts of the programme: scheduled SFS meetings and the broader set of direct business connections.

Walmart Sourcing, Sam's Club, Li & Fung, Adidas, ACFC, Maison Corporation and Kingfisher are among the major retailers and purchasing groups registered to participate. Their presence gives suppliers access to businesses with international purchasing operations and specific requirements for the goods they buy.

The sessions allow manufacturers to demonstrate what they can make, learn what buyers require and negotiate contracts. A supplier must explain its capabilities in enough detail for a potential customer to judge whether its products and production processes fit the customer's needs.

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngoc, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, set out the purpose of those connections:

The event seeks to foster practical linkages between domestic supporting industry businesses and foreign direct investment enterprises or major manufacturing corporations in Vietnam.

The city's aim is to help supporting industry businesses take a more active and deeper role in global supply chains as international production patterns change. Connecting with a large manufacturer operating in Vietnam can be one route into that wider network.

Product Displays Cover Electronics, Textiles and Home Goods

The Electronics & Home Appliances Zone features consumer electronics, smart home devices, automotive electronics and mobile accessories. This places products for households alongside technology used in vehicles and everyday communications.

The Vietnam Pavilion presents home goods, furniture, fashion, textiles and handicrafts. The Korea and India Pavilions add products associated with their respective markets, including K-Beauty items, wellness products and handwoven textiles.

More than five fashion shows are planned across three days. Collections range from creative and environmentally friendly designs to formal clothing and casualwear, allowing buyers to see garments presented as collections as well as inspect products at exhibition booths.

For Vietnamese suppliers, the displays also provide a way to understand international demand. The range of products and styles gives businesses an opportunity to consider how their own goods match buyers' preferences and where changes may be needed.

Seminars Address Logistics, Regulations and Sustainability

The programme extends beyond product displays with sessions on manufacturing, logistics and legal affairs. Seminar topics include Sourcing in Vietnam: Real Lessons from Successes and Failures, Vietnam's Logistics Landscape: Context and Challenges, and Sustainability in Global Sourcing: The Path to Net Zero.

These discussions focus on market trends, consumer preferences and changes in trade regulations in major export markets. For a manufacturer, understanding those subjects is part of preparing to supply customers abroad, alongside making the product itself.

Logistics covers the movement of goods between factories, warehouses and customers. Net zero refers to balancing greenhouse gas emissions with the amount removed. Both subjects connect the commercial discussion at the fairs with the practical demands of delivering products and responding to sustainability requirements.

Industry specialists leading the sessions are intended to give participants information they can use when planning production and export activity. Workshops, business matching and knowledge exchange make the fairs a place to discuss how an order can be fulfilled, as well as where it might be secured.

City Policy Supports Factory Investment

HCM City has issued Resolution 09 to provide interest rate subsidies on loans for priority sectors. The sectors include mechanics, electronics and information technology, pharmaceuticals, rubber and plastics, food processing, and supporting industries.

An interest rate subsidy reduces the interest expense a business bears on a qualifying loan. The city's policy is intended to encourage companies to invest in production upgrades and expand their scale to meet market demand.

Le Nguyen Duy Oanh, deputy director of the city's Centre for Supporting Industries Development, said cooperation between suppliers is central to improving their position:

The key is that firms need to join hands to enhance their competitive advantages in the global supply chain. Forming chains or clusters of components allows them to meet the stringent requirements of emerging technology markets and enhance their competitiveness in global supply chains.

The city also organises regular networking events, specialised exhibitions and training in manufacturing methods such as 5S, Kaizen and Lean. These approaches focus on organised workplaces, continuous improvement and reducing wasted effort or resources.

The intended result is practical: local manufacturers gain technology and management experience, modernise their production and become better prepared to supply larger companies. Investment support and training address the factory work that must accompany a successful introduction to a buyer.

September Event Targets Buyers From 60 Markets

Vietnam International Sourcing, scheduled for September 2025, is expected to attract more than 300 international purchasing delegations from 60 countries and territories. More than 60 Vietnamese trade offices worldwide are supporting the effort to bring buyers to the event.

More than 400 Vietnamese businesses are expected to operate 500 booths displaying over 12,000 products across four key sectors. The product range includes agricultural produce, processed foods, garments, textiles, footwear, furniture, supporting industry goods and personal electronic devices.

These September figures belong to Vietnam International Sourcing, a separate event from Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam, whose programme includes approximately 30,000 products and exhibitors from several countries and territories. Each event provides a different route for buyers to meet suppliers.

H&M and other Nordic companies are sending delegations to seek business partnerships. Their participation offers opportunities for Vietnamese businesses in fashion, textiles and sustainable supply chains, while reflecting the wider shift in sourcing strategies toward Vietnam.

The September programme also includes seminars, business connections, survey programmes, and visits to factories and industrial parks. Topics cover export standards, the green transition, logistics and international branding. Factory visits give purchasing delegations another setting in which to examine potential business relationships.

The programme's time frame runs from the 2025 fairs to a wider national objective:

• 2025: SFS holds its eighth edition, while Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam brings international exhibitors and buyers to SECC.
• September 2025: Vietnam International Sourcing is scheduled to welcome purchasing delegations from 60 countries and territories.
• 2030: Vietnam's broader national strategy seeks to integrate Vietnamese businesses into global supply chains.

Suppliers Face Demands for More Complete Production

Vietnamese supporting industry companies still face limited acceptance in the domestic market and strong competition from foreign counterparts. Meeting international customers requires investment in product quality, factories, management systems and international standards.

Buyers increasingly want a full range of components instead of individual parts. That shifts the task for local suppliers: a business capable of making one item may need to work with other manufacturers or expand its own capabilities to meet a wider purchasing requirement.

Only a handful of Vietnamese businesses can currently meet those demands. Technical skills, production capacity and workforce training therefore remain central needs, even as the fairs create more opportunities to meet prospective customers.

Vinavit Corp provides an example of a company that has positioned itself as a global supplier by investing in quality improvements and expanding its production capabilities. Its experience illustrates the combination of investment and production development that local firms are pursuing.

Component clusters, such as those advocated by Le Nguyen Duy Oanh, offer a way for manufacturers to combine capabilities. The commercial value lies in being able to respond to a customer seeking a broader package of parts, rather than asking that customer to assemble the package from disconnected suppliers.

What the Fairs Change for Vietnamese Businesses

HCM City's sourcing programme brings market access, production advice and investment support into the same industrial development effort. Exhibitions introduce suppliers to customers, meetings make purchasing requirements more specific, and training helps businesses prepare their operations to respond.

Vietnam's combination of competitive costs, quality and flexibility is central to its appeal as international companies spread purchasing across more locations. The emphasis on sustainability, digital transformation and advanced manufacturing is also part of the country's effort to strengthen its position over time.

The national strategy looks toward integration into global supply chains by 2030. The immediate work is more concrete: helping a local manufacturer understand a buyer's requirements, improve its production and compete for business beyond its existing market.

The expected buyer numbers and planned meetings describe the scale of that opportunity. A final total of contracts or their value was not given. For participating companies, the practical outcome depends on turning those introductions into orders they have the quality, capacity and management systems to fulfil.

Key Points

• SFS 2025 brings 20 foreign companies and major Vietnamese manufacturers into more than 300 prearranged meetings with 100 domestic supporting industry suppliers.
• Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam 2025 features more than 400 exhibitors, 500 booths and approximately 30,000 products, with more than 10,000 buyers, agents and retailers expected.
• Major registered purchasing groups include Walmart Sourcing, Sam's Club, Li & Fung, Adidas and Kingfisher.
• Resolution 09 provides interest rate support for investment in priority industries, alongside city training and networking programmes.
• September's Vietnam International Sourcing expects more than 300 purchasing delegations from 60 countries and territories.
• Vietnamese suppliers face growing demands for complete ranges of components, stronger quality systems and greater production capacity.
• The fairs form part of Vietnam's broader strategy to integrate domestic businesses into global supply chains by 2030.