|
Consumers urged to buy local
The Ministry of Industry and Trade expects to complete its plan to help domestic enterprises survive the global economic crisis this month.
A key ingredient will be the encouragement of Vietnamese to buy made-in Viet Nam goods, especially in rural Viet Nam.
Purpose of the effort is to boost consumption of domestic goods and expand their market share.
The ministry will co-operate with 10-15 manufacturers to send three delegations to sell goods directly into the districts of northern, central and southern Viet Nam.
Each mobile delegation will organise two visits each month to sell the essential goods meeting rural dwellers’ demand at a reasonable price and quality.
The plan also includes the building of an efficient retail system and making the buying of made-in-Viet Nam goods a habit, the ministry says.
The ministry says rural Viet Nam offers a potential market for Vietnamese goods that producers have ignored.
Instead, the rural market has become a haven for fake and low-quality imports.
Although 70 per cent of the population live in rural Viet Nam, most supermarkets are in cities or large urban precincts, says the ministry.
The ministry also plans to open markets for Vietnamese goods for industrial-zone workers and weekend markets for the same goods in major cities each month.
The ministry estimates implementation of the plan will totally cost VND52 billion (US$2.97 million).
The Ministry of Finance’s Market and Price Research Institute deputy director, Vu Dinh Anh, says the plan to stimulate domestic demand in rural Viet Nam will prove more effective than in cities because most Vietnamese live there.
As demand improves, it will prove a major market for domestic goods, he says.
The researcher says enterprises have ignored the domestic market partly because their production costs are always higher than their international rivals and the quality of domestic goods are lower than imports.
But he warns that enterprises will be defeated in rural markets if they try to sell only products they cannot sell abroad.
"Enterprises need to have concrete strategies to access the market and consider the domestic market as long-term target," he says.
Producers should offer the same quality of goods in the domestic market as those for exports.
A major obstacle to accessing the rural market will be a lack of capital for building distribution systems.
The Finance Ministry’s Domestic Market Policy Department deputy director Vo Van Quyen says he expects the plan to help enterprises overcome their present difficulties.
But enterprises finding it difficult to raise capital for production will not find it easy to organise a study for the building of a distribution system.
Another obstacle, especially for exporters, will be to complete a study of domestic consumer demand.
The ministry will survey domestic demand for Vietnamese goods in the second and third quarters of this year to provide support for the enterprises, he says.
The researcher says the plan provides the enterprises the chance of a collective effort to improve their competitive ability in the home market.
The results will depend on their ability to do business.
Some enterprises have done well despite the difficulties.
For example, Vietnamese dairy produce has retained its share of the domestic market.
Plastic industry production is stable while production in other industries has been suspended.
Trade consultant Nguyen Van Nam says although exporters have produced goods based on information from their foreign partners, the study of domestic consumer demand will not be easy and will take time.
Ha Noi Supermarket Association Vu Vinh Phu says revenue has fallen because of the global economic crisis.
The Viet Nam Paper and Pulp Association reports that enterprises have cut production by 20-40 per cent because sales of domestic paper have fallen sharply.
Increasing imports of competitively priced paper products have also affected domestic production.
The Viet Nam Steel Association says sales of domestic steel have fallen as steel and pig iron products compete with imports from China, Russia and the ASEAN countries.
Other goods, including fertiliser, textiles, garments and footwear, have fallen into difficulty against imports.
VietNamNet/VNS
|
