HÀ NỘI — A campaign urging local people to buy “Made-in-Viet Nam” products has helped develop businesses across the country.

The Vietnamese people using Vietnamese goods campaign has played a key role in helping local enterprises, a conference held in Hà Nội on Tuesday heard.

“The campaign should not be a slogan but aim to conquer Vietnamese consumers,” said deputy minister of Industry and Trade Đỗ Thắng Hải.

Trương Thị Ngọc Ánh, vice chairwoman of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, said all of localities nationwide had worked to implement the idea.

More than 100 trade promotion conferences were held last year and more than 2,000 programmes were organised to bring Vietnamese goods to rural areas.

“Local consumers in rural and remote areas had opportunities to recognise and know more about made-in-Việt Nam products,” Ánh said.

“Domestic producers have expanded their production and focused on sustainable development.”

Vietnamese goods have improved their quality and sell for more reasonable prices. The country now has some 4,823 specialties of which 695 have registered for intellectual property protection.

But it is not all good news.

The campaign has seen shortcomings as the counterfeit, poor quality and unsafe goods have been found.  

Cao Đức Phát, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission said the Government should continue to complete policies and mechanisms to facilitate business development while strengthening market management to fight counterfeit or poor quality goods to protect Viet Nam’s reputation and build links between production and consumption to increase trust for consumers.

“2019 is an important year when the CPTPP agreement comes into effect and 60 per cent of tariff lines have been removed,” Phát said.

“In the next 3 years, 85 per cent of tariff lines will be erased. This puts pressure on Vietnamese goods. Therefore, it is necessary to support Vietnamese enterprises to contribute to socio-economic development.”

The ministry said it would listen to issues and help where it can. It would also pay attention to develop distribution systems to increase the rate of Vietnamese goods at retail and improve competitiveness.

Vice President and General Secretary of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee Hầu A Lềnh said they would suggest new policies which are suitable with the current situation.

They would organise a forum to help enterprises exchange ideas and proposals for Government. Meanwhile, the use of Made-in-Việt Nam goods would be enhanced in projects using State money.

The Government should encourage investment into developing distribution systems and apply science and technologies to improve quality. — VNS