Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized 3 conditions for markets to operate in the context of the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sharing at an online meeting to discuss the situation of goods supply for the southern provinces, with the participation of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan on July 18, Mr. Dien said that after 7 days of applying social distancing measures according to Directive 16 in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, the supply of goods has been disrupted, the circulation of goods between provinces, regions and the three regions has encountered many difficulties.

Mr. Dien said that if we only rely on the supermarket system, we will not be able to meet consumer demand. From there, Mr. Dien proposed to reopen traditional markets if they meet 3 conditions.

Specifically, only sell essential goods including vegetables, fruits, fresh goods and medicines for people's daily lives; strictly implement epidemic prevention measures to ensure safety such as implementing 5K, distributing coupons in rotation, ensuring distance between stalls... and vaccinating traders at traditional markets.

"We need stronger measures to ensure people's lives," Mr. Dien emphasized.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, Head of the Steering Committee for Goods Supply in the South, also said that the prerequisite for ensuring goods supply is to reopen traditional markets. Therefore, when implementing Directive 16 in the southern provinces, all traditional markets and wholesale markets should not be closed.

At the meeting, Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized that the three stages of harvesting, transporting and distributing must be activated together to implement, and sit together to handle difficulties. When the situation becomes more difficult, the state must take on the role of regulating the market, and assign forces to participate in transporting and distributing goods.

In addition, Mr. Hoan suggested that Ho Chi Minh City needs to clearly grasp the consumption needs of the locality, study the partial reopening of the distribution system of essential goods and possibly establish statistical departments, sending daily information to the two Ministries of Industry and Trade and Agriculture and Rural Development to work together to resolve the problems.

"Localities need to be responsible to Ho Chi Minh City for food supply, but the city must also clarify its needs, because businesses with supply needs may not have determined the needs of each location," Mr. Hoan said.

According to Nguyen Nguyen Phuong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade, Ho Chi Minh City has reopened traditional markets but is facing difficulties in ensuring the supply of goods, leading to increased prices. The reason is that in large production areas, people are not allowed to go to the fields to harvest due to social distancing requirements, so it is necessary to protect production areas and raw material areas.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Truong Van Ba, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Market Management Department, also said that if the sectors do not coordinate to have methods of regulation, transportation, and distribution, even if traditional markets are reopened but there are no goods, price increases can still occur.

From there, Mr. Ba recommended that the Ministry of Industry and Trade work with the Ministry of Finance, promptly instructing local tax agencies to coordinate with market management to investigate and verify cases of unreasonable price increases.