Nguyễn Đức Độ, deputy director of the Academy of Finance. — Photo haiquanonline.com

PhD Doctor Nguyễn Đức Độ, deputy director of the Academy of Finance, talks to Hải Quan (Customs) newspaper on the need to promote the development of the domestic market

Do you have any comments on the campaign to encourage Vietnamese consumers and enterprises to use Vietnamese made products?

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the global supply chain and Việt Nam is no exception. Due to the pandemic, the number of foreign tourists coming to Việt Nam has dropped considerably.

In this context, the campaign to encourage Vietnamese people and enterprises to use Vietnamese made products is the right and the most effective way forward for Việt Nam.

This measure will help encourage Vietnamese consumers and enterprises to use Vietnamese made products. This is a key driving force for Vietnamese made products and after-sales services to improve and for the national economy to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic.

What are the opportunities and challenges Việt Nam is facing in developing the domestic market?

The biggest opportunity Việt Nam has is its success in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic, without any new case detected in the community in more than 50 days.

As a result, the national socio-economic development in May has been evidenced by the recovery of industrial production activities, retail goods and other services. Though import-export activities remain restricted, consumers have switched to use Vietnamese made products or services.

These are positive signs, yet in the long run, there remain many big challenges for the country. In March and April, the country’s socio-economic indicators dropped considerably due to the pandemic. Yet, in May, many things were changed positively. However, it will take some time for Việt Nam to recover its economic development to the level before the pandemic. Even now, many people are still worried about the return of the pandemic. This is one of the reasons why many people are still saving for rainy days.

Though the Government has called on enterprises to launch promotion programmes to help boost domestic consumption, the health of many enterprises has not fully recovered, particularly their financial budget. That’s why promotion days were very short and the sale prices were not attractive enough to buyers.

Don’t you think, in the long run, promotion programmes will gradually return to how they were before the COVID-19 pandemic?

For both the public and enterprises, the driving force for the promotion of the domestic market is financial resources. Without money how can people buy more goods or services? Only when the COVID-19 vaccine is available, everything will be under control. The economy will then be quickly restored and develop, both domestically and internationally.

However, for the Vietnamese domestic market, when a new flow of foreign investment arrives in the country, more jobs will be available to Vietnamese workers and Vietnamese enterprises will be able to find outlets for their products. As a result, money flow will come back as it did before the pandemic.

What’s the significance of the campaign to encourage Vietnamese people to use Vietnamese products?

The campaign has been launched and gained positive results. I’m confident that if Vietnamese made goods are of high quality, they will be the preference of many Vietnamese buyers. However, as I mentioned above, due to the negative impacts of the pandemic, many people don’t have much money at hand to buy goods. This is one of the reasons why the campaign has not lived up to expectations.

What should agencies do to help promote the domestic market?

Việt Nam’s financial and monetary policies feature many supporting programmes, ranging from reducing interest rates to cutting taxes or fees for both the public and enterprises which are affected by the pandemic.

In my opinion, these programmes are on time and rather comprehensive. However, how we make these programmes come to the right people who desperately need the money is still a problem.

In other words, we have to calculate carefully and have rational strategies from all concerned agencies. Right now, our credit growth rate remains at a low level as both people and enterprises have not shown much interest in production expansion or spending more money. It will take time for things to return to normal. — VNS