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‘Buy Vietnamese’ drive to promote domestic trade
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said the Government will continue to support consumption of Vietnamese goods in rural areas, industrial zones and big urban centres.
The move is considered a key element of the ministry’s programme of promoting local trade, said Deputy Minister Nguyen Cam Tu during a trade conference in the capital on April 22.
He said that the ministry would hold a week of intense promotions from next Monday to boost the sales of Vietnamese goods in shops, supermarkets and trade centres.
In addition, the ministry plans to conduct market research on the shopping habits of local consumers to help firms draw up effective business strategies to exploit the domestic market.
The ministry plans to conduct the market research in the second and third quarter of this year in 10 cities and provinces across the country, said Tu.
Hoang Tho Xuan, head of the Domestic Market Policy Department, said he hoped, with the ministry’s support, local associations and businesses would pay more attention to the marketing of their goods to boost sales.
However, trade experts warned that if Vietnamese enterprises did not have comprehensive business plans, they would struggle to succeed against stiff competition from abroad.
Truong Dinh Tuyen, a member of the National Advisory Council for Monetary Policies, said that it was important that local businesses expanded their share of the domestic market as export markets were shrinking. However, he said that businesses needed to have long-term strategies to fully realise their ambitions.
It was also pointed out that a number of domestic companies were turning away from the volatile export market and seeking temporary shelter at home until the financial crisis is over.
Tuyen emphasisied that Vietnam has a domestic retail trade turnover of VND986 trillion so there are still many opportunities worth exploiting.
Vu Kim Hanh, director of the Enterprise Support and Business Research Centre, said the domestic market should not be thought of as a temporary shelter but as a lucrative long-term investment.
She also said that export companies, while making products for domestic consumption, should be ready to resume exporting when the time is ripe.
vietnamnews, vov
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