As part of the Government initiative Vietnamese Give Priority to Using Vietnamese Goods, members of a group of State-owned corporations on September 8 signed an agreement at the central level to accord priority to using products made by the group's members. The pact will cover the period 2015-20. Speaking at a conference on September 8, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, urged enterprises to enhance product quality and competitiveness as they create new products to affirm and consolidate Vietnamese brands. Nhan said it was vital that businesses renovate technology and enhance application of advanced technologies to improve productivity and production capacity. In addition, great attention should be paid to establish the distribution systems in order to ensure Vietnamese products and services to reach more consumers, Nhan said, adding that co-ordination in distribution or using each others' products was also important to efficiently achieve positive results of the ‘Vietnamese give priority to use Vietnamese goods' campaign. The campaign must aim at promoting Vietnamese manufacturers, inspiring them to produce high-quality products, distributors to sell and consumers to choose such products, he said. The priority that State-owned enterprises at the central level must accord to using products made by each other helps encourage production and use of domestic products and creates momentum for renovations while increasing local procurement rate. Many members in the group of State-owned enterprises at the central level now have local procurement rates upwards of 70 percent, thanks to co-ordination among members. The group has 33 members covering key sectors of the economy, such as fuel, minerals, railway transport, marine transport, air transport, telecommunications and garment and textile, with a combined contribution of one third of the government's budget annually, and together providing 1.3 million jobs.-VNA