Domestic trade promotion programme going ploddingly

VietNamNet Bridge – Government agencies have been criticized for being too slow to implement the high priority domestic goods promotion programme. 

Over fifty billion dong ($2.8 million) have been allocated to support the domestic trade promotion programme announced five months ago.  None of the sum has yet been spent.  In view of the strong political push by the Politburo in July – the so-called ‘buy Vietnamense goods’ campaign — and a strongly positive reaction by consumers and producers, Chung Khoan, a financial paper, asked a responsible official to explain why things have progressed so slowly.

 

Chung Khoan asked the director of the department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) who is responsible for the programme to explain. The official, Hoang Tho Xuan, replied that programme has been slowed because four documents were needed.

 

Xuan said that MOIT planned to launch its campaign right after the ministry announced it at a press conference in April 2009.  However, Xuan said, the programme met procedural obstacles.  Four types of documents were needed to implement the programme: (1) a decision by the Industry and Trade Minister on implementing the programme and the Prime Minister’s instruction; (2) an inter-ministerial circular by MOIT and the Ministry of Finance; (3) a decision to form a task force in charge of programme implementation and (4) regulations on opening tenders, verifying tenders and other ‘technical issues’ for the programme.

 

These procedural requirements have been the object of a lot of meetings and workshops organized by MOIT.  Endless hours have been spent to coordinate agreement, particularly with the Finance Ministry, on a suitable mechanism for the implementation of the programme and set eligibility requirements for enterprises to participate in the programme. All this work took MOIT three months.

 

On September 11, Xuan said, MOIT moved into the contracting stage.  Bids are being evaluated.  Xuan hopes that necessary procedures will be completed by the end of September, in time to launch the programme in early October.

 

Though MOIT insists that it is been trying its best to speed up the implementation of the domestic trade promotion programme, enterprises worry that the 51.2 billion dong allocated for the programme cannot be used up before it terminates in December.

 

 

 

 

Hoang Tho Xuan, Director of the Domestic Market Management Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade:   Domestic retail consumption still grew by 18.4 percent in 2009’s first eight months, year over year, while the price index increased by only 3.5 percent.  That should be seen as a positive growth rate.   The prices of Vietnam-made goods have been kept stable, which is a very important factor to persuade consumers to purchase them.   I think that our footwear, processed food and home electric products can well compete with foreign made products. I’m not sure about electronics and machinery.  Because the local content of electronics products is just 10-15 percent, we cannot say they are purely Vietnamese goods.   Nguyen Thanh Bien, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade:   What do we mean by ‘Vietnamese goods’? Bamboo and rattan made handicrafts, for example, are considered as having ‘high Vietnamese character’ because the products are made of materials sourced from Vietnam and by Vietnamese workers. However, even when we import materials from other countries to make products domestically, these products are still ‘Vietnamese goods’ and should be encouraged.

 

VietNamNet, VnMedia 

 

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