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Local production threatened by illegal imports
Vietnamese economists and businesses have called for prompt action to prevent illegal imports from flocking into Vietnam from China.
Le Dang Doanh, a senior economist from the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), said the following:
It is quite a surprise that the ring bringing China-made products illegally into Vietnam has been operating on a big scale, while they have not been discovered by relevant ministries, which also have not introduced measures to prevent this.
The harm caused by illegal imports is evident: Local production has come to a standstill, while exports have decreased. The ‘underground’ rings have helped China consume a lot of inventory products, counterfeit and imitation commodities. Vietnamese enterprises cannot compete with the products because they have to compete in an unhealthy environment.
As far as I know, a lot of domestic enterprises have scaled down production, or shifted to process Chinese commodities (with low prices and diversified models) which they then label ‘made-in-Vietnam’ products. Vietnam needs to analyse the situation to find a way to rescue local production.
Vietnamese enterprises have to join forces with associations and government management agencies to prevent illegal imports. Government agencies need to discover which forces are organising and backing the ring of illegal importers, and suggest measures to deal with the ring.
I hope that the National Assembly’s deputies will take an interest in the issue and make queries during the May session.
Pham Chi Lan, former member of the Prime Minister’s Research Team:
While China has clear and detailed policies for its programme on developing the domestic market and sending commodities to regional countries, Vietnam’s government agencies have been late in taking action. We have organised conferences and workshops, but we haven’t introduced concrete measures. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has only just recently introduced a project on developing the rural market.
Meanwhile, businesses themselves have not cooperated in marketing their commodities to conquer the domestic market.
Since Vietnam joined the WTO, its commodities have been facing a lot of safeguard barriers from import countries, while Vietnam leaves its market open for China-made cheap commodities to flow into.
I think that the thing we should do right now is to use ‘commodity quality standards’ to restrict the import of low-quality products.
Nguyen Dinh Kim, Director of Asia Footwear:
We well know that we cannot compete with Chinese products in the segment of low-quality products. Therefore, we have been focusing on medium-class products for low-income earners. Our products have higher durability than Chinese products, while they fit the tastes of Vietnamese people and have the most reasonable price levels.
Tran Thanh Sang, Managing Director of Ninomaxx and N&M:
In fact, Chinese commodities are inferior to Vietnam-made products. Though Chinese commodities are cheap, they are, in the minds of Vietnamese people, low-quality products. Moreover, the commodities do not have ‘additional values’ because the buyers of the products cannot get customer care services.
So, it is necessary to provide customers with products which have the characteristics that Chinese commodities do not have: products with good quality and good post-sale services.
Lai Kim, General Director of Nhat Tan Garment Company:
Vietnamese enterprises have no other choice than joining forces to cover the domestic market with domestically-made products, and to bring high-quality products directly to consumers.
It is clear that enterprises have to spend big sums of money to expand their distribution networks. Why don’t they think of joining forces to establish distribution networks to sell their products? By doing so, businesses can save on investment costs, while customers would have more choices when they go to shops.
VietNamNet, TT
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