Hanoi (VNA)🗹 – Hanoi’s Department of Industry and Trade has defined programmes to connect demand and supply and step up trade promotions as one of the major tasks to help develop the domestic market.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the country since the beginning of the year has directly affected production and business activities of many enterprises. Therefore, the supply-demand connection and the introduction of Vietnamese products are among important solutions to promote the domestic market, boost exports and remove post-pandemic difficulties for businesses.

Promoting sales of Vietnamese products

According to Nguyen Thi Mai Anh, Vice Director of the Hanoi Promotion Agency (HPA), the coordination between the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, and the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in organising a trade exchange conference to connect supply and demand in Hanoi and other localities is important, which is expected to produce high practical values. Along with the exhibition and introduction of products, businesses attending the event will get opportunities to share their experiences on farm produce production, processing and storing, as well as solutions to promote sales on the domestic and foreign markets. Hanoi, with a population of about 10.3 million, is now a market with strong consumption power. The city has a modern distribution system with 25 trade centres, 141 supermarkets, 455 markets, more than 1,000 convenience stores, and 786 shops selling safe fruits. The system has been invested and developed to meet the community’s demands. Tran Thi Phuong Lan, Vice Director of the city’s Department of Industry and Trade, said that in order to realise the dual goal of preventing and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and maintaining and recovering socio-economic growth, the department has given the top priority to stepping upprogrammes to connect supply and demand, promote trade and tourism to raise consumption power and increase retail sales as well as service revenues. With this direction, the city has implemented many cooperation programmes with the connections with localities across the country, supporting businesses to introduce and sell products. Lan said that the supply-demand connection conference with the introduction of Vietnamese products, which will be held from May 28-31 in Hanoi, will be one of the significant solutions to help businesses, cooperatives and production facilities of Hanoi and other cities and provinces to get closer links with the distribution system in Hanoi and the whole country, contributing to warming up the city’s economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, by connecting and bringing goods to the modern distribution system, many localities enjoyed over 1 trillion VND in sales of products in Hanoi, including Bac Giang, Quang Ninh, Son La and Ninh Thuan. Besides, more than 200 new suppliers from localities sharing connections with Hanoi provided their products to major distribution channels in the city such as Vinmart, Big C Thang Long, Saigon Co.op Hanoi and Duc Thanh mart. On the other hand, localities have ensured the abundant supply to Hanoi.

Removing obstacles

The campaign to encourage Vietnamese people to prioritise using Vietnamese products has produced fruitful outcomes, creating favourable conditions for businesses to directly introduce their products to consumers. Particularly, according to Lan, thanks to the modern distribution system, farmers get guidelines on modern production methods as well as packaging and storing, while having stable markets and higher incomes. However, in the perspective of a distributor, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, Director of Co.opmart Ha Dong, held that to satisfy the current consumption trend, products must have high quality and be safe and friendly to the environment. Therefore, the supply-demand connection and the selling of goods in the distribution system are important. To develop the domestic market, Deputy Director of the MoIT’s Domestic Market Department Le Viet Nga said that along with solutions to complete institutions, ministries and sectors should focus on enhancing the efficiency of law enforcement to create a healthy and smooth market to support businesses and encourage consumption through suitable programmes. On top of all, businesses must provide qualified products to consumers, Nga said, adding that the current period is a good time for companies that have reached international markets to introduce to domestic consumers products that meet the requirements of most choosy markets./.