Stable price initiative a success
Stable price initiative a success
The city's market stabilisation programmme, with its diverse, high quality products and reasonable prices, has become an effective way to regulate and stabilise market prices.
Speaking at a conference yesterday, Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the city's Industry and Trade Department, said the programme had promoted trade co-operation between HCM City and other neighbouring provinces, and had created favourable conditions for the city's enterprises to work with others to invest in production, connect supply and demand, and ensure a stable supply for the city.
Last year, the city did not use the State budget to support enterprises in the programme but invited credit institutions to provide preferential interest rates on loans.
Five credit institutions and 59 enterprises joined the programme in 2013. They provided VND860 billion (US$42.5 million) in short-term loans with an interest rate of 6 per cent per year and VND1.1 trillion ($53 million) for medium- and long-term loans at 10 per cent per year.
The programme accounted for 25-40 per cent of market demand, an increase of 15-30 per cent in comparison with 2012.
Selling prices for products in the programme were 5-10 per cent lower than market prices.
The programme comprises four groups, including basic foodstuff, milk, essential medicine, and goods for students.
The basic foodstuff includes rice, sugar, cooking oil, meat, eggs, processed food, vegetables, fruit and seafood.
Enterprises have provided 350 kinds of food and the total value for products of the programme in 2013 and Lunar New Year 2014 was VND12.5 trillion ($600 million), an increase of 46 per cent compared to 2012.
Many participating enterprises have expanded their production for the programme because of increased capital and soft loans provided to them.
For example, the Sai Gon Trade Corporation now has cold storage with a capacity of 21,000 tonnes for goods at the Binh Dien wholesale market.
Meanwhile, the Sai Gon Co-op has invested in three storage and delivery centres in Hau Giang and Binh Duong provinces and has updated equipment for their logistics system.
In addition, the Ba Huan limited company has invested in an 18-ha farm for poultry and eggs.
The programme aims to bring essential food for all customers in supermarkets, shops, traditional markets, industrial and processing zones, and restaurant owners who provide meals for enterprises, factories and schools.
The programme has 8,200 points of sale, an increase of 1,270 since its inception. The number of selling places in the city outskirts has increased from 54 in 2008 to 815.
Student uniforms, notebooks and schoolbags have been provided to 2 million students in the city under the programme.
In 2013, 13 enterprises joined the programme, with turnover of VND411 billion ($20 million), an increase of nearly 11 per cent compared with 2012.
Many promotion campaigns were carried out, including cuts in prices by 25-30 per cent, and donations of notebooks to poor students in rural areas. There are 769 selling places around the city.
Milk was included in the programme for the third year, with participation of the companies Vinamilk and Nutifood, which have taken 30 per cent of market share.
These two companies have provided 32 types of products with nearly 15,000 tonnes and revenue was VND1.26 trillion ($60 million), an increase of 45.5 per cent compared with 2012.
Vinamilk's products were tested as having the same quality as imported products, but the price was half of the latter.
Milk products purchased in the programme were brought to 1,563 schools, 284 factories and 31 enterprises in industrial and processing zones
This is also the third year that essential medicine was included in the programme.
In 2013, there were 13 local leading pharmaceutical companies with 392 products taking part in the programme, an increase of 307 compared with 2012.
There were 2,756 selling points for drugs, an increase of 732 compared to 2012, at 2,054 private pharmacies, 108 hospital pharmacies and 594 enterprises' shops.
"The programme has improved enterprises' abilities and encouraged customers to use and buy local products," Dao added.
The current programme implementation end on March 2015.
vietnamnews
