Authorities confirm “reasonable cost” for booth tenants
Authorities confirm “reasonable cost” for booth tenants
A Vientiane business company, which was granted a concession by Vientiane authorities to sell vending spaces for the street fair on Fa Ngum Road has confirmed the price of booths won't be exorbitant this year.
The annual traditional festival is set to kick off from October 6 to 9 in Chanthabouly district. The actual boat races will take place on October 9 following the last day of Buddhist Lent but the festival will get underway on October 6 as market stalls and makeshift snack stands fill the riverside streets.
The owner of the Khamseng Company Mr Khamseng Soundala told Vientiane Times yesterday the booths at this year's Boat Racing Festival will be sold directly to the vendors without agents or middlemen and the costs should be “reasonable.”
The fare for each block will be 2.5 to 3 million kip, which was set by the organising committee and the companies granted the concessions. The price of the blocks is also dependent on their locations. The cost of space rental is almost the same as last year's price. However complaints were made by numbers of vendors last year that the price was higher than the price set by the committees.
“This year, we are confident that the rental spaces will be directly sold to vendors and we will also work together with the organising committees to address the issues if there are any problems that occur,” Mr Khamseng confirmed.
In this case, if the cost of booths is higher, the greedy vendors will prefer to take an opportunity from buyers by selling goods at irregular prices, which will be higher than usual prices in the markets.
Head of the Trade and Product Promotion Division under the Vientiane Industry and Commerce Ms Phommy Dethvongsone said “The organising committees and the companies will team up to seek solutions to address the high costs of booths at the festival.”
She explained that there were many causes for the high price of booths previously. She gave the example of a vendor who bought a booth for selling goods but she incidentally fell ill ahead of the festival and then sold it to her relatives and then her relatives on-sold it to another vendor.
“This can be a cause as well. So this year we intend to address a longstanding issue raised by members of public for many years.”
To address the price of products, monitoring units were formed and assigned to check the prices of goods being sold by vendors every day during the festival, according to Ms Phommy.
The organising committees, authorities of the local villagers concerned and four districts are also set to work together to solve any problems that may occur during the festival.
There will be almost 1,000 booths altogether this year and four different companies have been granted concessions to sell the spaces for vendors.
Almost 300 booths are owned by Khamseng Company, including the 50 free-of-charge booths for local products and 20 free booths for One District One Product (ODOP) items.
vientiane times
