Economy
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| A meeting held to review industrial production and trading in HCM City in the first half of the year heard that a green variety of petrol, E5, has seen sales quadruple this year. — VNS Photo |
Viet Nam News
HCMC ITY — Total retail sales of goods and services in HCM City topped an estimated VNĐ510.19 trillion (US$22.27 billion) in the first half of the year, an increase of 12.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the city Department of Industry and Trade.
Sectors like household goods, food and foodstuff, garment, and petrol reported good growth.
HCM City’s industrial production index (IPI) was estimated to increase by 7.11 per cent in the first half of the year, with four key sectors — food processing, chemical-rubber, mechanics, and information technology — seeing an increase of 9.55 per cent.
Speaking at a meeting to review the industrial and trading sectors in HCM City on Thursday, Nguyễn Phương Đông, the department’s deputy director, said two new decrees on trade promotion and trading of liquid petroleum gas were expected to streamline businesses’ operations.
The former has new regulations for promotional activities, including a new maximum rate for promotions in mass/concentrated programmes.
In case of mass promotion programmes, the maximum value of goods and services under the promotion and the maximum discount rate can be 100 per cent of the value of the goods and services.
Earlier, the maximum value of goods and services and maximum discount could not exceed 50 per cent under any circumstances, Đông said.
"This is good news for businesses and consumers," he said.
The highlight of the other decree is the simplification and elimination of certain conditions in terms of scale of business, ownership, distribution, and administrative procedures.
Businesses will no longer have to invest a large sum of money for trading LPG.
Instead, the decree emphasises ensuring safety, fire prevention and firefighting.
Green E5 petrol consumption rises
Nguyễn Nguyên Phương, head of the department’s trading management division, reported that E5 sales accounted for 26.79 per cent of total petrol sales in the city compared to 6.7 per cent last year. E5 is a green fuel containing 5 per cent ethanol.
But the consumption of E5 did not increase as much as expected since A95 petrol sales doubled in the period, he said.
The city has 538 petrol stations, of which 475 sell E5, according to Phương.
An average of 44,730 cubic metres of E5 is consumed every month. — VNS
