HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has promulgated a directive on implementing solutions to ensure supply and demand balance and to stabilise the local market.

The directive is targeted at the year-end months and the upcoming Tết (Lunar New Year).

Accordingly, minister Trần Tuấn Anh required the provincial departments of industry and trade to evaluate goods demand and supply, especially essential products, to have active solutions to ensure market stabilisation. This could prevent goods shortage or inventories after the festival.

The departments were also asked to support and connect producers and distributors with credit institutions for loans with preferential interest rates so that they could produce and reserve more goods during the upcoming Tết.

The departments would co-operate with the departments of agriculture and rural development and relevant agencies to organise agro-forestry and seafood fairs to provide safe and healthy food.

In addition, they should promote the "Vietnamese people prioritise Vietnamese products" campaign to support domestically produced goods and stabilise markets, especially in remote and mountainous areas.

The ministry has urged businesses to implement trade promotion activities while encouraging them to participate in stabilisation programmes to distribute goods to residential areas, industrial parks, outskirt districts, remote areas and islands. These activities could help low-income earners buy goods at reasonable prices.

The ministry also requested groups, corporations and companies to review supply and demand to provide goods in the market in a timely manner during the Lunar New Year.

Electricity of Việt Nam was required to strictly implement power supply for production and consumption, while having specific plans to ensure enough electricity for the holiday.

Việt Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Việt Nam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) and petrol wholesalers was asked to ensure supply. The groups should have petroleum import plans with suitable prices to avoid price surge while implementing regulations on fire and explosion prevention.

Producers should closely supervise sales in their distribution and agent system to prevent goods shortage and artificial price surge.

They were asked to improve quality, diversify products and control input to reduce production costs and increasing competitiveness with import goods.

MoIT asked associations to closely co-operate with the ministry to review supply and demand of essential goods to have timely solutions for market stabilisation. — VNS