Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - While Vietnamese goods havebecome more popular in the domestic market, there's still a long way to gobefore local products rule the roost.

A recent survey on 10 years of the 'Vietnamese peopleprioritise using Vietnamese goods campaign' revealed 88 percent of Vietnamesehad interested in the campaign.

Sixty-seven percent said they would buy Vietnamese goods, 52percent said they recommended relatives buy Vietnamese goods and 36 percentsaid they had shifted from buying foreign goods to domestic goods.

However, Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of the Vietnam Associationof Small and Medium Enterprises (Vinasme), said that there were still manyproblems with the campaign.

Supermarkets, trade centres and convenience stores hadimproved fast but they were mostly in cities and towns, he said.

Additionally, small and micro businesses struggled to getcapital, land and construction licences.

Another difficulty was growing competition from foreigndistributors in Vietnam, cutting into the market share of domestic products.

Nguyen Huu Duong, chairman of the management council of HoaBinh Co Ltd, said that if there were no convenient places to sell products, it wouldbe difficult for domestic enterprises to develop.

Up to 90 percent of standard trading centres were held byforeign groups, he explained.

For Vietnamese enterprises to survive and thrive, places tointroduce and sell products were vital, Duong emphasised.

Each province and district needed at least one trade centreto sell essential commodities produced by Vietnamese enterprises, he said.

Duong also asked for preferential policies on space hiringfees to help local enterprises and farmers.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Vietnam Fatherland Front'smovement board, said it was necessary to complete a legal framework to developmodern means for trade.

As 98 percent of Vietnamese businesses were small and mediumenterprises, they faced many difficulties accessing capital.

Therefore, Nguyen Tri Hieu, chairman of Verig consultingcouncil, suggested using peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, allowing fintech companiesto connect investors with lending businesses via technology apps.

This would support investors and lending businesses when thebanking system was overloaded, he said.

Tran Thi Phuong Lan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Departmentof Industry and Trade, said the capital city had integrated bringing Vietnamesegoods to industrial parks and processing zones with market stabilisationprogrammes to meet the shopping needs of labourers.

Selling Vietnamese goods in processing zones and industrialparks had brought practical benefits to employees, Lan said, adding that distributionbusinesses such as Big C, Hapro and Co.opmart had implemented many discount andgift-giving programmes, which attracted a large number of workers to shop.

She said industrial zones needed to work with enterprises incommunication and create favourable conditions in tax, space and rental fees.

To promote Vietnamese goods among workers, Le Viet Nga, DeputyDirector of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry andTrade, said the ministry had built 104 selling points in 58 locationsnationwide, with many near industrial parks and export processing zones.

These models had helped workers in industrial parks save timeand money in accessing quality Vietnamese goods, she said.

However, there were still many retailers that were not interestedin these programmes.

Explaining this, Nguyen Thi Hai Thanh, Deputy General Directorof Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro), said the programmes did not bring muchprofit.

To boost the consumption of Vietnamese goods, Dinh Thi MyLoan, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Retailers, asked the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade and local authorities to develop a long-term strategy toencourage consumers to prioritise Vietnamese goods.

She also advised enterprises to participate in fairs held inindustrial and processing zones and to improve the quality of products to wincustomers' trust./.