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Buy Vietnamese – But what does that actually mean?
The campaign to ‘Buy Vietnamese goods’ was launched three months ago, however, what constitutes such goods remains uncertain.
Nguyen Thai Dung, Deputy General Director of Big C Thang Long, confirms 95 percent of goods distributed by the supermarket chain are Vietnamese, which means they are made at the factories in Vietnam and by Vietnamese workers.
“The products with international brand names like Unilever, P&G and Sony which are made in Vietnam and must be considered as Vietnamese goods,” Dung said.
Meanwhile, Diep Thanh Kiet, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association, believes it is necessary to set up standards to which people can refer to decide if products are ‘Vietnamese goods’ or not.
He said that the products must be made at domestic factories and the products must have the added value created domestically. The required added value levels will be stipulated by government agencies which will be different for different products.
For example, the required added value will be lower for electronics products, because Vietnamese enterprises have to import materials for domestic assembling. Meanwhile, consumer goods and processed foods must have higher required added value to be recognized as Vietnamese goods. Above all, he said, the owners of trademarks must be Vietnamese citizens.
If referring to standards suggested by Kiet, Pepsi drinks are not ‘Vietnamese goods’ even though they are made in Vietnam. Meanwhile, products made with foreign technologies, materials and workers will still be ‘Vietnamese goods’ if the owner of the goods’ trademarks are Vietnamese citizens.
Meanwhile, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, when talking to the local press, said that it will take much more time to before Vietnamese consumers use 100 percent made in Vietnam products
Dung from Big C confirms that the taste of Vietnamese consumers has changed and that they now tend to use made-in- Vietnam products instead of imports.
The survey conducted by FTA Vietnam, a consultancy and survey firm on the behaviour of Vietnamese consumers to Vietnamese goods, showed that 71 percent of consumers believe in ‘Vietnamese high quality products’ They choose Vietnam-made goods because of the reasonable prices and acceptable quality.
There are regional differences. The majority of consumers in HCM City purchase goods because of good prices, while the top priority of consumers in Da Nang is the quality of products.
Local newspaper Dan tri has found from its quick survey that most of buyers at Big C, Metro and Hapro supermarkets tend to purchase fresh food and garment products.
vietnamnet, dt
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