Big Sale Month set for November

The upcoming Big Sale Month in HCMC will serve as a platform for participating companies to promote their sales and brands toward more local consumers, heard a seminar at the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade on August 25.

The department's deputy director Tran Vinh Nhung said participating companies would launch mobile sales of their products at industrial parks and export processing zones as well as suburban areas in the city from September 1 to 30.

"Mobile sales during the Big Sale Month will be carried out on a larger scale in suburban areas as well as at the industrial parks and export processing zones," Nhung told the Daily after the seminar about the program organized by the Department in collaboration with the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Ho Xuan Lam, deputy manager of the Labor Department at the HCMC Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza), said the mobile sales programs would enable workers at IPs and EPZs to buy quality products with affordable prices.

Lam furthered some 250,000 people were working at 13 IPs and EPZs in HCMC, and up to 70% of them were migrants from other cities and provinces of the country.

Nguyen Thanh Nhan, deputy general director of Saigon Co.op, said essential goods would be sold to workers and residents in suburban areas at prices 5-40% lower than normal levels.

Nhan said Saigon Co.op planned to earmark VND40 billion (more than US$2.2 million) this year for selling discount products and providing consumers with vouchers for discount goods at the outlets of Saigon Co.op.

Companies in the tourism sector will see more opportunities to attract not only international visitors but also domestic guests during the annual sale campaign. La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said this agency was working with 5-star hotels over a program to offer a discount price of up to 50% for local guests.

Khanh said the "A one-day stay at 5-star hotels" program was expected to help more Vietnamese enjoy upscale services and the luxury increase revenue at a time when their room occupancy was dropping sharply as a result of the global economic slump and H1N1 flu.

Khanh said the city sector was cooperating with local companies to offer discount rates of 30-35% for domestic guests at commercial centers and tourist sites and hotels knocked 30-50% off the services for the programs targeting international travelers as part of an ongoing national tourism campaign initiated early this year.

Khanh said the tourism sector's participation in the Big Sale Month would be one of the ways to further promote the "Impressive Vietnam" campaign toward both local and international guests in order to attract more travelers and shoppers to the city.

Khanh expected HCMC would attract 200,000 international tourists during the month-long promotion. He also noted some 360 companies in other cities and provinces had pledged discounts for HCMC-based tour operators.

Nhung said this year's Big Sale Month attracted more than 350 companies in HCMC and that the list would be updated until the opening of the campaign.

VietNamNet, SGT

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