After gaining encouraging results from a pilot programme that allow consumers to check the origin of pork, the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade on July 1 announced the implementation of a plan to use information technology to control and trace the origin of poultry meat and eggs.

A new set of regulations will be imposed on companies either looking to be or already listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchange’s (HNX) Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), increasing the level of inspection and monitoring on these entities and preventing investors from buying unqualified stocks by underperforming businesses.

The market management departments of 19 provinces and cities in the south in the first half of the year discovered more than 11,420 violations of smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeiting, a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent, according to the HCM City Market Management Department.

Quality assurance is the first factor that enables a product to enter supermarkets, delegates told a discussion on bringing goods into the modern retail channel held in HCM City on June 30.

According to a survey by the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry last year, only 14 per cent of private Vietnamese businesses had foreign-owned businesses as clients.

The agriculture sector will have to make greater efforts to fulfil three major targets set for this year, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyễn Xuân Cường said at a conference in Hà Nội last week to review the sector’s performance in the first half of this year and set targets for the second half.

Expectations of positive corporate earnings reports will lead Vietnamese shares up this week, especially financial-banking stocks, analysts say.

The export value of vegetables and fruits is estimated at US$1.7 billion in the first half of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 45 per cent.

The Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has the largest number of broadband subscribers in Việt Nam, said Nguyễn Trường Giang, VNPT’s deputy general director.