In light of the “Five Administrative Disciplines” policy and the innovations in the direction and operation of activities towards a more drastic, comprehensive, and focused manner, especially on remediation and limiting shortcomings, the capital city achieved various socio-economic results in the first six months of 2017. Market management was enhanced, inflation was controlled, difficulties in production and business were solved, and environment for investment and business were improved significantly. However, the world situation is still unstable and people, especially the poor and low-income people, are still facing difficulties. Environmental pollution and the problem of poor food hygiene and safety have not been controlled. The weather and epidemics in the area also threat to present risks that pose challenges to the city’s socio-economic development. Facing with these advantages and disadvantages, the Hanoi Steering Committee for the “Vietnamese give priority to Vietnamese goods” campaign has focused on leading and directing comprehensively the implementation of the plan in 2017 right from the first months of the year.
After determining that propaganda plays an important role in the implementation of the campaign, the campaign steering boards at all levels, units, and member organizations, have focused on close and comprehensive guidance on the deployment of the campaign. The propaganda has been implemented in many forms in order to gain positive responses from officers, Party members, workers, civil servants, Youth Union members, group members, and the mass population. The municipal steering committee has implemented a propaganda oriented program through press agencies where the contents of the campaign are integrated with information on socio-economic situations of the country and the capital city. Steering boards of districts and towns have focused on introducing high-quality Vietnamese products suitable to the tastes and needs of local consumers in order to stimulate consumption. The Department of Industry and Trade has been in preparation for the “High-quality Vietnamese Goods Choice” program. Various forms of propaganda have contributed to raising awareness of the mass population on the implementation of the campaign and creating contagion in the community, gradually building a character of consumption of the capital city’s citizens. The rate of using domestically produced goods in the city’s offices and agencies has increased compared to the same period in 2016.
Enterprises apply various measures to bring Vietnamese goods to consumers
In the first 6 months of 2017, with its task to bring Vietnamese goods to consumers as assigned by the municipal campaign steering committee, the Department of Industry and Trade promoted the development of trade, stabilized the market, organized 5 Vietnamese goods fairs, 1 Tet market, 22 Vietnamese market-days, and 5 weeks of Vietnamese goods, and sent 190 travelling sales teams to various districts and industrial parks. The Department also advised on organizing the implementation of the “Developing trade and services in the direction of modernization in the Hanoi City up to 2025” scheme, coordinated in the completion of the plan on development of regional connection and trade links between Hanoi and other provinces and cities, launched Vietnam goods fairs, trade fairs, and delivered solutions to strengthen the supply – demand connection between Hanoi City and some provinces and cities in 2017.
Trademark building for traditional craft villages was one of the topics that continued to be focused on in the first 6 months of 2017
The city had set out measures to reduce difficulties for enterprises and create favorable environment for Vietnamese enterprises to promote production and business and improve competitiveness. The Department of Industry and Trade also jointly developed the “Developing key industrial products of Hanoi city up to 2020, orientation to 2030” scheme. Six training courses on food safety and laws on food safety were provided to food businesses and a list of high-quality products of some enterprises was made to inform consumers in the localities. In the first 6 months, the authorities received and appraised 61 application dossiers of 11 districts for the award of the title “Hanoi Artisan” as well as dossiers from 6 districts on proposal for support in trademark building for 12 traditional craft villages. The Farmers’ Union of the city entered into a cooperation program with the Farmers’ Unions in the provinces and cities in the Red River Delta and the Northern Midlands in cooperating for the introduction and consumption of clean and high-quality products. Steering boards of districts and towns had also coordinated with administrative authorities in assisting enterprises in determining and selecting convenient sale places for better presentation of the goods to local consumers in order to promote local Vietnamese sales programs.
In order to support consumers, in the first 6 months of 2017, the Department of Industry and Trade organized a “For Consumers” Product Day with 60 booths and a “Week of expressing gratitude to consumers” at nearly 50 local places in reputable high-quality production, trading, and distribution enterprises. The Department of Finance inspected the price stabilization and supervised the registration, declaration, and quotation of prices according to law provisions, especially essential goods and services. The Farmers’ Union of the city cooperated in organizing a trading session of safe agricultural products where seasonal vegetables were introduced and purchased, which was highly appreciated by consumers. Agencies under the Youth Union of Hanoi City organized sales activities and subsidized goods fairs for young people, workers, and other classes of consumers. The steering boards of the districts and towns also organized programs to protect consumers’ rights. Some examples were Nam Tu Liem District with the establishment of 13 food safety rapid testing points for daily products and Soc Son District with the opening of a supplying shop where 50 agricultural products of clear origin were introduced to consumers. In the first 6 months, 4,685 food safety cases were looked over, of which 4,387 cases were handled by the Hanoi Market Management Department. The steering boards of districts and towns also coordinated with administrative authorities in organizing interdisciplinary inspection teams to inspect and control production and trading activities on the market for better implementation of the campaign by authorities, units, and enterprises in the future. In total, the value of handled goods was over 65 billion VND.
Local businesses actively responded to the campaign by investing in operations, applying advanced technology, applying management science, and reducing indirect costs to improve the quality of goods, create diversity of product design, reduce prices, focus on customers, and strengthen product promotion, step-by-step implementing the protection of consumers’ rights.
In addition to the achievements, the implementation of the first 6 months of 2017 still showed some limitations. Some units, departments, and sectors have not paid attention to the implementation of the campaign and have not actively participated in propaganda activities. Some units carried out the campaign ineffectively and failed to actively report on the results of implementation of the campaign in their respective units to the municipal campaign steering committee. Some businesses have not paid attention to the construction and protection of trademarks and labels of products and goods. Counterfeit goods, fake goods, smuggled goods, and poor-quality goods were traded widely and food hygiene and safety has not been put under control due to difficulties on the market, resulting in the reduction of consumers’ trust.
In the last 6 months of 2017, the municipal campaign steering committee, departments, units, sectors, and members of the campaign steering boards of districts and towns shall continue to renovate the contents and methods of communicating information to enterprises and consumers. A more practical and focused approach shall be applied with the use of typical models in order to provide information on the campaign to all citizens and enterprises in the city. The campaign shall focus on supply-demand linkages and on bringing high-quality products to mass consumers. The city’s press agencies shall continue to disseminate in-depth information on the campaign, focusing on information on high-quality Vietnamese goods. The promotion for the Hanoi Promotion Month (November 2017) and 2017 Consumer Choice Program (from November to December 2017) shall be strengthened. Activities within the campaign shall be associated with the city’s business support activities in order to remove difficulties for enterprises. Trade promotion programs, Vietnamese goods fairs, and handicraft gift fairs shall continue to be held in order to support enterprises in promoting export growth. The authorities and units are also required to effectively continue the implementation of key tasks and solutions to improve business environment, improve competitiveness, and reform administrative procedures to contribute to the establishment of a favorable business environment for enterprises in the city. Functional agencies shall continue to perform the task of managing the market and product prices, eliminating counterfeited goods and poor-quality goods, preventing smuggling, eliminating prohibited goods, and preventing commercial fraud to contribute to the combating of inflation and stabilization of prices of essential goods, ensuring social security and sustainable growth. The steering boards of districts and towns shall also coordinate with administrative authorities of the same levels in assisting enterprises in determining and selecting convenient sale places for better presentation of the goods to local consumers in order to promote rural product sales programs in residential areas.
Minh Hue