From the momentum created by the Vietnam Golden Autumn Fair 2025 to expectations of a breakthrough during the Lunar New Year (Tet), the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 is being placed under high expectations. Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), shared further insights into the significance and long-term orientation of the event in an interview with the Newspaper of Industry and Trade.

Amid continued global and domestic economic uncertainties, boosting domestic consumption and ensuring supply-demand balance during the Tet period is of particular importance to Vietnam’s economic growth. Against this backdrop, the MoIT will organise the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026, a national-level trade promotion event expected to create a strong stimulus for the year-end and early-year market.

Beyond a Tet shopping venue, the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 is positioned as a consumption festival, bringing together high-quality Vietnamese products and regional specialties, while closely linking economic objectives with political tasks and traditional cultural values.

A critical link and a Tet consumption stimulus

In a short period of time, the MoIT has consecutively organised and prepared large-scale trade promotion events, from the Vietnam Golden Autumn Fair 2025 to the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026. Could you elaborate on the role and significance of the Spring Fair 2026, particularly in stimulating consumption and stabilising the market during the Tet holiday?

Director General Vu Ba Phu: First, the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 is an activity implementing the Prime Minister’s directions in Official Dispatch No. 06/CD-TTg dated January 24, 2026 on accelerating key tasks and solutions to achieve economic growth targets for 2026, as well as the conclusions of the Standing Government on January 26, 2026. The event contributes to institutionalising a chain of annual national-level trade promotion events in a professional and systematic manner.

Second, the fair plays a pivotal role in stimulating consumption, expanding domestic demand and developing the domestic market. Through this, it supports production, contributes to endogenous growth and moves towards building an independent and self-reliant economy, in line with Resolution No. 59-NQ/TW dated January 24, 2025 of the Party Central Committee.

The fair will take place from February 2 to 13, 2026, corresponding to the 15th to 26th days of the last lunar month of 2025. It is positioned as a Tet consumption festival held during the “golden period” of year-end shopping and is expected to generate a strong market stimulus.

Specifically, the fair will help stimulate consumption by creating a large-scale, concentrated shopping space featuring high-quality products and regional specialties, enabling consumers to directly access abundant goods at reasonable prices.

It will also facilitate supply-demand connectivity and promote Vietnamese brands, providing enterprises and cooperatives with opportunities to expand distribution networks and directly connect with a broad consumer market.

In addition, through well-structured zoning involving ministries, localities and major enterprises, the fair will contribute to market stabilisation, helping curb price increases by 5 - 10% and ensuring adequate supplies of food and essential goods during the Tet period, in line with Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP for 2026.

Overall, the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 serves as a critical link in maintaining economic growth momentum from 2025 into 2026, reaffirming the MoIT’s role in accompanying enterprises and consumers in building a stable, dynamic and prosperous Tet market.

Spreading “made in Vietnam” and igniting early-year production momentum

What are the objectives and support plans to encourage production and business activities before, during and after the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026?

Director General Vu Ba Phu: The fair is not merely a shopping venue, but a powerful platform to spread the value of the “Made in Vietnam” brand and project the image of a dynamic and internationally integrated country. We want the spirit of “Connecting prosperity - Welcoming a glorious spring” to permeate the business community, creating a competitive production momentum right from the first days of the new year.

In the preparation phase, the MoIT has rolled out a comprehensive communication campaign across national media channels, including the Vietnam Television (VTV), the Voice of Vietnam (VOV), and the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), as well as electronic newspapers and social media platforms, with the aim of generating hundreds of articles and in-depth reports to heat up the market. At the same time, visual promotion activities have been strengthened, while the organising committee provides maximum support in infrastructure and standard booth design to help enterprises optimise display efficiency.

During the fair, the focus is on direct supply-demand linkage through trade forums and thematic events. Product showcases, brand promotion and business matchmaking activities are organised in an integrated manner across both physical and digital environments. These efforts help accelerate goods circulation, support enterprises in expanding consumption channels and boosting purchasing power, while enabling consumers to access quality products at reasonable prices.

After the fair, the MoIT will continue to monitor and synthesise outcomes, coordinate with media agencies to reflect post-event impacts, and support enterprises in maintaining connections established with distributors and partners. The goal is to gradually translate trade promotion results into stable and sustainable production and business activities.

Where politics, economy and culture converge

The First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 is identified not only as a trade event but also as an important political task. How are the political, economic and cultural dimensions most clearly integrated in this event?

Director General Vu Ba Phu: At the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026, the political, economic and cultural dimensions are not separated but seamlessly integrated, creating the event’s distinctive value.

Politically, the fair reflects unified leadership from the Government and coordinated participation of ministries, sectors and localities across the political system. It demonstrates the Party and State’s determination to develop the domestic market, stimulate consumption and support enterprises, while embodying a governance mindset in which the State plays a facilitating and accompanying role in trade promotion and market development.

Economically, the fair serves as the central axis, demonstrated by its national scale, value-chain-based exhibition structure and supply-demand connectivity linking production with distribution, and the domestic market with international markets. It provides a substantive space for enterprises to promote products, seek partners, expand markets and attract investment and technology, thereby contributing to growth, market stability and the enhanced role of the private sector.

Culturally, the fair vividly integrates traditional Tet spaces, regional cultural zones, craft villages, cuisine, arts and cultural industries. Culture not only creates a festive atmosphere, but also acts as a “soft catalyst” for trade promotion, enhancing the value and competitiveness of Vietnamese products while promoting the image of Vietnam and its people.

This harmonious integration of politics, economy and culture is a defining hallmark of the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026, giving it comprehensive domestic and external significance and contributing to confidence-building, aspiration for development and Vietnam’s position in deepening international integration.

Substantive stimulation and strengthened consumer confidence

As the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 coincides with the peak Tet shopping period, how do you assess the effectiveness of consumption stimulus programmes in helping consumers shop with confidence amid current economic conditions?

Director General Vu Ba Phu: In the current context, we place particular emphasis on the substantive nature and effectiveness of stimulus programmes to ensure that consumers can not only shop adequately but also feel secure.

First, stimulus programmes are implemented in a coordinated and focused manner, closely linked with strict quality control. Consumers can directly access products with clear origins, assured quality and reasonable prices, thereby reinforcing the “Vietnamese people prioritise Vietnamese goods” campaign.

Second, the fair helps shorten intermediary stages by directly connecting producers, distributors and consumers. Enterprises can reduce operating and consignment costs by 15 - 20%, passing these savings on to consumers through more competitive prices. This transparency strengthens consumer trust, especially as concerns over product quality and origin continue to rise.

Third, stimulus activities are integrated with communication, experience-sharing and consumer consultation, providing comprehensive information on products, sales policies and after-sales commitments. This is crucial for building consumer confidence during a period when purchasing power remains under pressure.

These programmes deliver immediate benefits during Tet while contributing to market stability, strengthening consumer confidence and creating momentum for production and business activities from the beginning of 2026.

Expectations of a breakthrough and shaping a national fair system

Following the success of the Vietnam Golden Autumn Fair 2025, what are your expectations for the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026, and how does the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency plan to build a professional and sustainable national fair system in the coming years?

Director General Vu Ba Phu: If the Vietnam Golden Autumn Fair 2025 was the opening shot, The First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 represents a decisive step in realising the spirit of Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP for 2026 and Official Dispatch No. 06/CD-TTg dated January 24, 2026 on key growth tasks.

While the Vietnam Golden Autumn Fair recorded transactions of around VND 1,000 billion under normal market conditions, the First Glorious Spring Fair 2026, held during 12 peak Tet shopping days, is expected to set a new revenue benchmark. Tet spending on essential goods and gifts typically increases two to three times, and with the participation of 2,500 enterprises and 3,000 booths, transaction value is projected to surge significantly beyond the VND 1,000 billion mark.

More importantly, the fair is expected to reinvigorate the “Vietnamese people use Vietnamese products” movement, closely associated with patriotism and national pride. Vietnamese goods should no longer be viewed merely as products requiring preferential support, but as high-quality offerings worthy of consumer trust and a symbol of prosperity.

In the long term, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency identifies the development of a national fair and exhibition system as a strategic task. Key orientations include standardising the organisation model towards professionalism and modernity, promoting digital transformation throughout the fair lifecycle, strengthening linkages with national trade promotion and market development programmes, and encouraging private sector participation under State guidance to ensure quality, efficiency and sustainability.

The First Glorious Spring Fair 2026 is not only a national-scale Tet shopping event, but also a symbol of a new trade promotion mindset: placing the domestic market at the core, enterprises at the centre and consumers as the driving force. With unified Government leadership and coordinated participation across sectors, the fair is expected to deliver a strong consumption stimulus, stabilise the market and generate growth momentum from the very start of 2026.