Le Viet Nga, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Domestic Markets Department

What are your assessments of the domestic market growth in the first five months of the year?

The domestic market has promoted essential goods production and supply and has been welcomed by consumers. It has experienced a double-digit growth since early this year. May usually witnessed a low sales value but May 2023 saw a sales value eight times that seen over the past eight years. This is attributed to the efficient efforts in domestic market and social security development.

Businesses and organizations have made it possible for all Vietnamese consumers to access goods that they need. Vietnam has been taming inflation very well and met consumers’ demand for goods since the beginning of the year, and even during the Tet (Lunar New Year Holiday) time. We expect that the increase will be maintained so that the nine-percent growth target set by the National Assembly and the Government for the industry and trade sector can be reached.

The presence of Vietnamese goods in distribution channels has increased

The domestic market is highly potential but facing difficulties due to the decrease in purchasing power in the post-pandemic period. What do you think about this?

Although it is benefiting from a large population and the controlled pandemic, the domestic market is faced with a number of difficulties, including the lack of capital for modernization of the retail market and logistics industry, difficult production and supply chain development, and people’s income decrease.

A matter of concern is how to get exporters, especially goods outsourcers, to adapt to domestic market development and meet the needs. Relevant authorities are facing numerous difficulties in market management, especially concerning e-commerce.

What will the Ministry of Industry and Trade do to promote the domestic market growth?

Immediately after the Government approved a strategy for domestic trade development to 2030, with a vision to 2045, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued its plan to realize the strategy, aiming to develop domestic trade infrastructure and digitization. The ministry told its Department of Personnel and Organization to coordinate with training facilities to train human resources for logistics and retail industries. Recently, representatives of many retailers have come to the department for training cooperation.

A goal has been set for consumers to access higher quality essential goods. After the pandemic was controlled, many distributors and retailers have trialed green, clean and beautiful trade infrastructure development projects to better serve consumers.

It is necessary to harmonize modern with traditional commercial development. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed that the Government attract domestic investment in traditional market improvement.