|
Vietnamese goods finding way to rural areas
Vo Van Quyen, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that the Government programme on bringing Vietnam-made goods to rural areas has shown positive results.
Quyen, in an interview with VTC News, said that businesses have reaped benefits from expanding distribution networks to rural areas. Some businesses have been surprised about how high their sales have been.
VTC: The Ministry of Industry and Trade in April announced the trade promotion programme for the domestic market which focuses on bringing goods to rural areas. How has the programme been going?
Quyen: We recently organised some campaigns to bring goods to some rural areas to sell. Businesses have found out from the campaigns that the demand in rural areas is very high, especially the demand for essential goods like bowls and chopsticks, tea-things, clothes, instant noodles. Meanwhile, more expensive things like electronic products are selling very slowly.
Having realised the demand, we will focus on selling the goods local people need from now to the end of 2009, goods related to eating, dressing, travelling.
VTC: Has the Ministry of Industry and Trade given support to enterprises to help them get goods to rural areas?
Quyen: We have been organising trade fairs to stimulate domestic demand for the past month. The state will give support to some trade fairs at the regional level.
Regarding activities to increase sales, the ministry has encouraged distribution networks from across the country to organise big events like a “Week of Vietnam-made Goods”. These will be national-scale events, for which the Ministry of Industry and Trade will come forward and organise advertising campaigns. I mean that enterprises will not have to pay for advertisement campaigns. This is a kind of state support for businesses. Giving support does not mean that the state has to give money directly to businesses.
VTC: The programme on bringing goods to rural areas has been in effect for one month. Do you think that it has had the desired effects?
Quyen: Businesses have reaped big things from the campaigns of bringing goods to rural areas to sell. Some businesses have been surprised about their sales because they could not have imagined before they would be able to sell so many products.
Many businesses have found out that their products sell better in rural area markets than in supermarkets. In Bac Giang province, for example, consumer and essential goods have sold very well
I strongly believe that bringing goods to rural areas is a strategic programme which can help improve the competitive edge of enterprises and their products, minimise the presence of counterfeit goods and low-quality foreign goods in rural areas. Besides, the programme also helps businesses design and make products suitable to the demands and payment capability of consumers in rural areas. These factors will help maintain the long-term existence of Vietnam-made goods in rural markets.
VTC: Rural area residents always compare the prices of Vietnam-made and China-made goods and they well know that Vietnam-made goods still have higher sale prices. What would you say about that?
Quyen: I do not think that this is really worrying. I think that the campaigns of bringing goods to rural areas will be opportunities for businesses to survey the tastes of consumers and opportunities for consumers in rural areas to realise that Vietnam-made goods have high quality, while the prices are reasonable.
The belief that the products selling in rural areas are mostly cheap products with low quality, out-of-fashion or imitation goods is out of date.
In my opinion, the most important thing businesses have reaped from sale campaigns is not turnover, but the understanding of how consumers react to their products. The reactions of consumers should be seen as suggestions for enterprises.
vietnamnew, vtc
|
