“Buy Vietnam” campaign meets with success

Better materials, diversified designs, competitive prices – all these factors have helped Vietnamese goods become the choice of consumers, from students to office workers.

According to HCM City Industry and Trade Department, after six months of implementing the ‘Buy Vietnamese goods’ campaign, the city’s total sales have increased by 30-40 percent.

Co-op Mart chain has reported an impressive increase in sales of 70 percent. Maximark and Hanoi supermarkets reported a sharp rise in sales of Vietnamese goods.

Vietnamese products have appeared more often at big trade centres or supermarkets like Co-op Mart, Big C or Maximark. According to Duong Thi Quynh Trang, Public Relations Director of Big C Supermarket, 95 percent of the products available at the supermarket are Vietnam-made goods.

“Vietnamese goods not only have increased their presence at supermarkets, but sales in the first six months of the year have also increased significantly, especially during big sale promotion campaigns,” Trang confirmed.

According to Trang, Vietnamese consumers favor domestic goods because their quality has been improved, while prices have become more competitive. In addition, supermarkets have applied policies aimed to encourage consumers to use these products.

According to VnExpress, fashion shops specializing in Vietnam-made goods have mushroomed along one road in HCM City. Thanh, the owner of one store, proclaimed that all their products are made in Vietnam, including those with well-known brand names like Viet Tien, Viet Thang and Thanh Cong, and others with lesser known names.

“We have plenty of customers,” Thanh bragged. “Especially, the number of visitors and buyers is very high on weekends. Our turnover reaches ten million dong on some days.”

Lan Anh, a customer at the shop, noted that Vietnam-made garment products now have diversified designs and low prices, but are in no way inferior to imports.

Nguyen Thi Hong, Deputy Chair of HCM City People’s Committee, observed that these initial achievements have been gained through the movement ‘Buy Vietnamese goods’, but she added that much more must be done to stimulate demand for Vietnamese goods.

Hong explained that, in the second half of 2010, HCM City must continue implementing five measures to stimulate the demand, including 1/ promoting propaganda that persuades people buy Vietnamese goods 2/ encouraging people to use domestic goods 3/ connecting businesses 4/ improving competitiveness of enterprises and 5/ controlling the market.

“Buy Vietnamese goods” is a long-term campaign that will need to be carried out over many years, according to Hong, which will continue to focus on state agencies, enterprises and consumers in the future.

Tags: “Buy Vietnam” campaign, Vietnam goods