Speaking at the conference organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Vice Chairman Hoang Quang Phong said the campaign has great meaning for Vietnamese businesses, helping local producers supply the market with high quality products at reasonable prices, which suit domestic demand and tastes. Pointing to clear proof of the campaign’s success, Phong said many local businesses had recently been trying to restructure production, improve management capacity and reduce costs. A large number of made-in-Vietnam goods have conquered consumers’ increasingly high demand and about 90 percent of Vietnamese products have been available in big supermarkets via distribution and retail networks.

Doan Trong Ly, chairman of the Animal Production Processing Import and Export JSC (APROCIMEX) said, Vietnamese consumers used to prefer foreign goods because domestic production at that time did not meet their demand in terms of quantity, quality, price and taste. After ten years of the Buy Vietnamese Goods campaign, the thinking of both producers and consumers has changed, and they have assumed a highly responsible role in the domestic economy.

However, many business representatives at the conference expressed concerns that the campaign was showing signs of decline, noting that many trade frauds and fake goods have been detected, wasting time and efforts of genuine producers in protecting their brands and cooperating with investigators.

They also complained that the domestic distribution and retail systems remain weak and are mostly inferior to those developed by foreign investors, and that many supermarket goods are made by Vietnamese labor, but outsourced for foreign brands.

In pointing to these major challenges for manufacturers of made-in-Vietnam brands, participants at the event urged the State and related agencies to pay more attention to this problem by amending policies and mechanisms.

Most enterprises attending the conference expressed their hope for the Party, State and Central Steering Committee to run the program in a wider and more effective way. That would result in greater responsibility on the part of business to investing in modern technologies, improving management and producing more high quality goods to serve local consumers.

Mrs. Ninh Thi Ty, Chairwoman of the Ho Guom Garment Group, said the campaign needs to be lifted to a higher level, targeting a new slogan: Vietnamese goods conquer consumers.