Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry predicts the nation will achieve total retail sales of about US$100 billion in 2012 – despite uncertainty in international financial markets.

Vietnam now boasts 102 shopping centers, 615 supermarkets and 2000 convenience stores – yet they handle just 15 to 20 per cent of the nation’s retail volumes. 

Some 8590 outdoor markets cover the lion’s share of the flow of goods.

The ministry is encouraging economic growth of about 10 per cent per year through to 2020 – and is targeting not only exporters but domestic business as well.

International retailers are already eyeing expansion or entry into Vietnam: Aeon of Japan and Giant of Hong Kong set up their operations last year. UK’s Tesco and the world’s largest retailer,  Walmart,  are both reportedly readying themselves for a Vietnam debut.

Nguyen Thanh Nhan, the deputy director of a major retail chain, Sai Gon Co-op, sees the impending entry of new players in the market as a challenge to local players to become more competitive.

The director of the ministry’s domestic market department, Truong Quang Hoai Nam, reports that there is already an intensified investment in the domestic market. One example is the Viet Nam Fashion Trading Co. The company has opened 55 retail stores in 22 cities and provinces throughout the country.

Nam expects domestic companies to benefit from their deeper knowledge of consumers in Vietnam’s domestic market than the newcomers from abroad. Their weakness, however, is a weaker financial and technological infrastructure.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa  says additional strengthening of Vietnamese retailers can only be achieved with an increased emphasis on human resources – including training of personnel. Both producers and retailers ought to be more attentive to ways of increasing local consumption, he recently argued. 

GB