VOV interviewed Nguyen Tien Thoa, Director General of the Department of Price Management under the Ministry of Finance (MOF) over the issue.

VOV: What is your opinion about the present supply-demand balance?

Mr. Thoa:  According to MOF’s inspection delegations to several southern provinces such as Ho Chi Minh City, Lam Dong, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, and Can Tho, most provinces plan to stockpile essential commodities to meet consumer demand at the end of the year and during the Lunar New Year.

Major cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Can Tho have taken the initiative to prepare a supply of goods and provide capital for businesses to prepare a supply of essential commodities through a price-stabilising programme.

Provincial departments of industry and trade all affirmed that they have signed contracts with suppliers and prepared sufficient amount of means of transportation and retail outlets. They also estimated that the demand will increase by 20-30 percent at the Tet holiday.

However, the Central region still finds it difficult to supply food due to the recent floods. The MOF and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are helping central provinces to grow short-day crops and asking people not to sell pork to China to ensure the sufficient supply of food.

VOV: What are the Government’s measures for price management for the end of 2010, especially prices of coal, electricity, running water, and other essentials commodities?

Mr. Thoa: To stabilise prices, it is necessary to ensure the supply-demand balance and to control people’s spending during the Tet holiday. Besides, the State should stabilise prices of electricity, coal, fertiliser, running water, and public services. The State Bank of Vietnam has also pledged to keep the exchange rate stable as otherwise it may negatively affect prices of both import and export goods.

VOV: The prices of some commodities under the price-stabilising programme are increasing. What are the reasons for this?

Mr. Thoa: Although the price-stabilising programme has proved its effectiveness, there are still shortages. For example, most products under the programme are only sold in big cities and big shops but not in traditional markets.

Many people still cannot find price-stabilising outlets and this is attributed to poor communication of the programme.

While inspecting the implementation of the programme in Ho Chi Minh City, we asked the city to open more stalls and outlets in traditional markets to make it easier for consumers to compare prices.

Moreover, stabilising prices does not mean keeping them unchanged. Only businesses which have had long-term contracts with suppliers can keep the prices unchanged.

VOV: The inspection and supervision of price registration seems weak while sanctions introduced are not strict enough. There have been violations in price registration. What are MOF’s solutions?

Mr. Thoa: Since the price registration policy took effect in October, 2010, 49 businesses have sent their price registration forms to the MOF, 30 of them asked for adjustments in prices both upward and downward. Unreasonable requests to increase prices will be rejected.

According to MOF’s recent inspections of the implementation of price management and registration in the central and southern regions, many businesses still do not know whether they have to register prices.

During the inspections at 16 businesses, four businesses were fined VND7 million.

VOV: Thank you very much.