Producers and providers should show their patriotism to consumers
Now more than ever, Vietnamese products face harsh competition, as the WTO membership has opened doors for foreign retailers. If our products don’t capture the market at home, there’s no way they will get the attention of consumers worldwide. It is a matter of life and death for the Vietnamese market so the campaign should have been launched when Vietnam officially entered the WTO, not now.
When calling Vietnamese people to be loyal to domestic products, we are talking about patriotism. In this commercial economy, that patriotism should come from consumers but only after the producers display theirs through their products. We cannot expect consumers to buy made-in-Vietnam products which are not as good value as foreign goods. We can expect patriotic purchasing at a level proportional to the price and quality of local products.
Our producers have not proved patriotic enough. They’re not trying to minimize the production cost and show their responsibility to the consumers. It’s not rare in Vietnam to see a producer, after having first been applauded by the public for a good value product, to start mass producing it – dropping the quality and raising the price.
Producers have to learn how to make and market good products at reasonable prices. Of course to answer those questions, the producers need support with the costs of water, fuel and power, which are mainly controlled by monopolies. Without those suppliers on board, the campaign can hardly achieve quality products at low prices.
