Illustrative image (Source: VIB) Despite this, markets in both cities will havesufficient food items in stock, authorities say.
Nguyen Duc Chung, Chairman of the Hanoi People’sCommittee, said his administration would facilitate enterprises’ access to bankloans for purchasing goods to stock for the festival season, the Giao thong(Transportation) newspaper reported.
This is the most efficient way to ensure enoughgoods for Tet and will create good conditions for the enterprises to step uptheir production and business efficiency, Chung said.
The report also quoted Le Ngoc Dao, deputydirector of HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, as saying that themunicipal administration had not been giving out the zero-interest loans since2013.
Instead, the city has encouraged commercialbanks to give loans at preferential interest rates so that the enterprises canaccess funds for production, trading and stocking, ensuring stability in demandand supply, Dao said.
This has seen the number of enterprises joiningthe price stabilisation programme increase every year, he added.
Nguyen Ngoc An, deputy director of Vissan, amajor food company in HCM City, said that over the past three or four years,his company had not obtained the zero-interest loans from the State budget.
The company has joined the price stabilisationprogramme to get loans at preferential interest rates from commercial banksthat are also part of it, he said.
After joining the programme, Vissan hasrestructured its production process to compete in terms of price and quality ofgoods, An said.
So far, ten commercial banks have joined HCMCity’s Tet goods price stabilisation programme to provide loans worth 12trillion VND (530,750 USD) this year, 1.1 trillion VND higher than last year,said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the State Bank’s branch in HCM City.The loans carry interest rates of between 4.15 percent and 6.5 percent peryear.
Stable supply
An said Vissan has prepared 3,200 tonnes ofprocessed food and 3,000 tonnes of fresh food for the Tet season. He saiddemand for food for Tet 2017 will not increase strongly in the HCM City withmany people leaving their homes or on tours.
Lotte Mart has increased supply by 30-40 percentfor confectionery and beverages and 25 percent for fashion products; while CoopMart has said it will cooperate with suppliers to offer discounts of 10-50percent on thousands of products.
Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy director of theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Livestock Department, said thedomestic livestock industry would supply enough food to the local market forthe Tet season because of increased output.-VNA
VNA
