HCM City to tighten regulatory controls

The municipal administration of HCM City plans to begin frequent inspections of supermarkets and trade centres this year onwards to ensure they “seriously” abide by regulations.

According to the city’s Department of Industry and Trade, the stricter inspection regime aims to make up for earlier lax implementation of regulations that has allowed for unplanned and haphazard development of the retail sector.

The new moves would hopefully restore order and better protect residents’ rights, it said.

Under the regulations, local supermarkets and trade centres are required to meet certain standards of size and architecture as well as product quality requirements like details of origin, brand names, price, use by date and guarantees.

They have also made sure that they do not sell commodities and services that are banned, smuggled goods, goods of low quality, toxic goods and inflammable materials.

For construction of new supermarkets and trade centres, investors will have to develop their projects in line with the city’s trade network development plan.

They will have to submit operation plans of their supermarkets to the department for approval and the approved plans will have to be made available for public perusal.

The planned stricter inspection regime includes regular and unscheduled inspections and reports on operations of local supermarkets and trade centres requested under guidelines from authorised agencies.

The department stresses that violations found during inspections will be punished strictly.

The city administration’s decision to strengthen control over local supermarkets and trade centres is aimed to ensure order and protect consumers’ rights, a representative of the trade and industry department said.

He said that although the Government’s Decision 1371 on supermarkets and trade centres as well as the city’s own regulations have been in effect for several years, they were implemented loosely due to indifference on the part of related state management agencies.

VietNamNet/VNS

Tags: Vietnam retail market