Firms urged to use promotions to clear stock

HA NOI (VNS) — Product promotions and discounts are essential for struggling enterprises to maintain their purchasing power, a leading economics director has said.

As a number of experts suggested ways to combat the tough economic conditions, director of the Southern Economics Study Centre Tran Sinh said that regular turnover of inventories was essential for buoyancy, adding that enterprises should even accept losses if it meant avoiding insolvency.

Currently, many merchants are offering discounts of up to 50 and even 70 per cent to boost consumption.

According to director of Vinh Thanh Dat Food Company Truong Chi Thien, inventory products could be taken for sale at supermarkets or traditional markets. He said enterprises could work with supermarkets to manufacture products labelled by the supermarket brands, pointing out that the co-operation would help reduce costs while ensuring a stable output.

Many businesses prefer to boosting sales through websites or TV shopping channels and director of Foci Fashion Company Ngo Thi Bau said on-line sales helped Foci cut distribution costs dramatically.

Another idea for weathering the economic storm came from director of Viet Nam National Chemical Group Nguyen Dinh Khang, who proposed a temporary reduction of value-added tax to ease the burdens on enterprises.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said it was important to understand difficulties hitting enterprises in order to effectively tackling them.

Adding that enterprises would be encouraged to prioritise exporting domestic output if there was more input material. The ministry also said that promotional activities would be accelerated, particularly the enhancement of the campaign "Vietnamese use Vietnamese products." — VNS