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Profligacy of Vietnamese consumers greatly exaggerated
One should not look at the Maybach or Mercedes imported recently to make the conclusion that Vietnamese people are wasteful, said Dr Nguyen Duc Kien, a member of the National Assembly Economics Committee, about import structure in the first half of the year.
What would you say about the imports which serve consumption demands in the last few months?
The consumer imports just accounted for 6% of the total imports, which included clothes, foodstuffs, cosmetics and cars.
Statistics show that the total import turnover was $30bil in the first half, which means that we spent $1.8bil only on 6% of consumer imports. Therefore, I can say that the consumer imports were not big.
Why have many experts and local newspapers criticised Vietnamese people for squandering money like in Hong Kong and Singapore, rich countries which have average incomes per capita much higher than in Vietnam?
They have exaggerated this case. I think that they have made such a conclusion based on their feelings, while they don’t have figures to prove wastefulness.
I think that we should keep a market economy vision when looking into the issue, not the vision of the centralised, planned economy. No one can say that people cannot use foreign-made bowls and plates, or wear foreign-made clothes.
However, a lot of experts and newspapers have criticised people that use luxury products at this moment, especially after a lot of luxury cars were imported.
Those who have made the criticism have an outdated perspective.
I have not heard anyone criticise Doan Nguyen Duc for his purchase of a private airplane. A lot of people even see Duc as a good example.
Vietnam is now a member of the WTO. We need to respect the desires and demands of individuals, provided that they do not break the laws.
Regarding the import of cars, I think that we need to support the import of cars. Car importers have to pay tax. If the management agencies do not want too many imports, they can raise the car ownership registration fee, transport fee and other types of fees.
You seem to be calm about the high trade deficit in the first half of the year; do you think that the trade deficit is not worth worrying about?
I think that when an economy is going towards industrialisation, a trade deficit is unavoidable. The more important thing is what is imported: I mean the import structure.
For example, we need to import $600mil worth of equipment for Ca May fertiliser-power plant. If we can control the trade deficit, that means that the national economy is still within control.
What are the problems in the import structure, then?
Let’s talk about the import of cashew nuts. The government should encourage enterprises to import cashew nuts for processing and re-exporting. However, enterprises should have to arrange foreign currencies themselves, while they should not ask for help from banks.
We should also criticise the enterprises that import backward technologies dating back to the 1960s-1970s, which may cause material waste and environmental pollution.
Vietnam may have to import some kinds of materials which are considered advantaged products, like coal or seafood. What would you say about this?
We need to answer the questions why and for whom do we need to import products. If we don’t import coal, how can the big thermopower plant in Kien Giang province run?
However, won’t coal imports make electricity prices increase?
We have to accept this because we are running a market economy.
VNN
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