Prices of essentials to be stabilised

The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade on Thursday submitted a plan to stabilise prices and ensure supply of essential goods until 2015 to the municipal People’s Committee.

The plan gives priority to stabilise prices of nine essential items – rice, sugar, cooking oil, red meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables, poultry eggs, processed food and milk products.

Reserve stocks of these commodities will be constantly maintained with quantities equalling at least 30 per cent of the city’s consumption in order to avoid any shortage and high price fluctuations.

Companies specialising in the production and trade of essential goods that participate in the plan will be provided with interest-free loans for stocking the commodities.

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of the municipal People’s Committee, asked the Department of Industry and Trade to calculate the quantity of each essential commodity that is needed for stock for specific periods.

The Department of Industry and Trade, in co-operation with the Department of Finance and the Department of Planning and Investment, has to review the capacity of participating companies and make plans to assess their listed prices, she said.

The plan will not only cover more than 1,500 outlets and supermarkets, but will also be expanded to traditional markets, she said.

This will be done by encouraging participating companies to directly supply the goods targeted under the price stabilisation campaign to retailers in traditional markets, Hong said.

She said this has been done successfully by Ba Huan and Vissan – two companies specialising in eggs and pork respectively, when they participated in the city’s Tet (Lunar New Year) festival price stabilisation programme.

If the work of bringing the nine essential goods into traditional markets was implemented successfully, the city would have more sites to sell these goods and reach more consumers, she added.

VietNamNet/VNS

Tags: Vietnam markets, Vietnam prices 2010