Director of Department of Industry and Trade: Preventing and combating trade fraud has been drastic but not as expected

On the morning of July 11, the 21st session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council, term 2021 - 2026, continued with the question and answer session.

Comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired and ran the session.

Attending the meeting were comrades: Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province, comrades of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, members of the Provincial Party Committee Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, delegates of the Provincial People's Council; leaders of departments, branches and localities.

At the question-and-answer session, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa answered questions from the provincial People's Council delegates about state management of food safety; prevention and handling of violations in the transportation and trading of smuggled goods and goods of unknown origin; planning, model conversion, investment in construction, business, exploitation and management of markets in Nghe An province.

Prevention and control of commercial fraud have not been achieved.

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Questioning the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, delegate Nguyen Cong Van (Nghi Loc unit) requested to inform about the current status of prevention, combat, and handling of violations in the transportation and trading of counterfeit, poor quality, unknown origin, and smuggled goods; the existing problems, limitations, causes, responsibilities, and solutions in the coming time.

Answering the question of delegate Van, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa said that the phenomenon of counterfeit goods, goods of unknown origin... are different manifestations of commercial fraud, this is the negative side of the market mechanism, which exists objectively. The work of preventing and combating commercial fraud is a fierce front in the recent past and present.

Mr. Pham Van Hoa said that not only in Nghe An, in Vietnam, but wherever there is a market, there is commercial fraud. The problem appears more or less depending on the market level, the level of national governance. The market level includes the production level, the business level and the consumer level.

In terms of consumption, people have the habit of buying floating goods; are not vigilant, do not care about invoices of origin; have little awareness to fight when buying fake goods, counterfeit goods, goods of unclear origin.

In recent times, from the central to local levels, Party committees and authorities at all levels have issued many directive documents related to commercial fraud and food safety. However, the effectiveness of propaganda work has not reached where it is needed, which is the market including: producers, traders, and consumers.

Currently, the coverage of legal documents in this field is basically complete. However, in practice, there are still gaps and discrepancies in legal institutions, but not large.

The involvement of the authorities in recent times has been drastic, but what is lacking is the connection of the power of the authorities and the power of the market. From this, the fight against trade fraud has not achieved the desired results.

Delegate Hoang Lan (Nghi Loc unit) requested to inform about the current situation of organization and compliance with laws on quality, price of goods and forms of organizing seminars to introduce and tour to sell goods in the province; the shortcomings, limitations, causes, responsibilities and solutions in the coming time?

Answering this question, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa said that recently, in some localities, there have been a number of groups and organizations coming to introduce and advertise products in many forms.

Legally, according to regulations, all individuals and business organizations are allowed to introduce products, it is not prohibited. However, in reality, there are groups of people who have taken advantage of this to commit fraudulent acts, borrowing the halls of hamlets and communes to sell products, which is against the regulations.

In the coming time, the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade proposed to strengthen the supervision of establishments, and when there is an incident, inform the authorities for inspection and handling. In particular, he suggested that people should find out information about the seller, product, company, and invoices to avoid being scammed.

Answering the question of delegate Tran Dinh Toan (Do Luong unit) about solutions to strengthen and improve trade promotion activities, expand markets to consume OCOP products of the province in the coming time, the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade said that in the past year, the trade promotion activities of OCOP products of the province have been good, with many sectors participating.

Through trade promotion activities, we connect products to the supply chain, some products are hoping to supply abroad. On the other hand, e-commerce support for OCOP products has also been done well. However, the province's OCOP products are numerous but not refined, the important issue is quality rather than quantity.

The market situation still has many shortcomings and inadequacies.

Responding to questions about the current status of market planning and implementation, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa said that currently, there are 371 markets in the area that have been reviewed and added to the Provincial Planning.

Decree 60 of the Government is about to be issued, with the content of implementing the investment plan for market development in the coming time. In the coming time, the Department of Industry and Trade will advise the Provincial People's Committee to direct this content; localities must develop specific plans for investment and market development in the coming time.

Also interested in the market content, delegate Ho Van Dam (Quynh Luu unit) asked the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade to provide solutions to handle spontaneous and illegal markets that have been operating for many years, in many places, posing potential risks of accidents, environmental hygiene, and food safety.

Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa said that the regulations allow temporary markets, but they must be in locations where markets have been planned but there are no conditions to build them to serve the people. Other places are called spontaneous business locations.

In urban areas, this is a limitation that needs to be eliminated and the responsibility for urban management assigned to local authorities. Currently, the management of this issue is not good and in the near future, the Department of Industry and Trade will advise the Provincial People's Committee to direct localities to do this work well.

Delegate Nguyen Duy Can (Vinh City) said that fire prevention and fighting work at markets is very difficult and complicated, and when a fire breaks out, it causes great damage. Currently, only a few markets have upgraded and renovated their fire prevention and fighting systems, so the majority of the remaining markets still have many shortcomings. So, what is the solution for the coming time?

Responding to the question of delegate Can, the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade said that currently, fire prevention and environmental sanitation are the biggest problems in the markets. The reason is that the markets are degraded and have not been renovated for many years; management and arrangement have not been seriously implemented; and coordination between forces in inspection and supervision is not regular.

In the coming time, the province will implement Decree 60 of the Government on transforming the market management model; review the current status of the market for rectification. At the same time, it is requested that the Fire Prevention and Fighting Agency actively support localities and market management boards in implementing fire prevention and fighting guidance measures; pay attention to supporting investment in fire prevention and fighting items; localities strengthen inspection and rectification of violations.

Concerned about the qualifications of the market management team, delegate Le Thi Theu (Tan Ky unit) emphasized that the qualifications of the market management team have not met the requirements, lacking a lot of knowledge. However, from 2021 to now, the Department of Industry and Trade has only organized 2 online training sessions on Covid-19 prevention and control. Please clarify the responsibilities and solutions of the industry on this issue?

The Director of the Department of Industry and Trade said that before 2020, training and development work was regular, however, from 2021 to 2024, there was not much training, not meeting the requirements due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and waiting for a new decree to be implemented simultaneously.

Many delegates also asked the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade to propose solutions to resolve the issue of 104 unclassified markets; investment plans to build a market system in mountainous and border areas; solutions to prevent traditional markets from being wasted...

According to the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, the reason why 104 markets in the province have not been ranked is because these markets do not meet the standards. In the near future, when implementing Decree 60 of the Government, all will be reviewed, if any market is necessary and has a market, it will continue to be upgraded and renovated to meet the standard. If any market is ineffective, the direction will be to eliminate it.

Besides, unclassified markets do not affect the investment orientation for construction, renovation and upgrading. In the orientation for developing markets in mountainous areas, especially areas associated with tourism, the Department is currently researching.

Implementing Decree 60 of the Government, we will have to carefully evaluate the current state of the market, paying the most attention to market competition, especially the city market. If the market is still necessary, it will be included in the renovation and upgrading plan to serve the people.

Food safety concerns before schools

Regarding food safety, delegate Tran Thi Khanh Linh (Vinh City) said that managing street vendors in front of schools and hospitals poses many potential risks to food safety and hygiene due to goods of unknown origin.

Delegate Linh asked the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade to provide management solutions to ensure the health of people and students; manage and monitor the quality of clean water at kindergartens in Vinh City.

According to Mr. Pham Van Hoa - Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, this issue is the responsibility of urban management, the solution is up to the localities. Therefore, it is recommended that localities strengthen urban management; direct schools to propagate and mobilize teachers, students and parents not to participate in this market.

Regarding food safety and clean water inspections at kindergartens in Vinh city, Mr. Hoa emphasized that the direction and inspection work is regular and the main responsibility lies with the schools.

Regarding the rate of food products with food safety standards which is still low compared to other products on the market, affecting the health of consumers, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Pham Van Hoa said that there are currently 14,000 businesses in this field, many new products, while the State's published standards are limited, many products have not been published. There are still many products that self-publish their standards, some of which are not accurate.

In the coming time, the solution is to propose that central ministries and branches complete the national technical standards system; focus on strengthening post-inspection work, and enhance the role of localities.

Speaking at the question and answer session, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh discussed and clarified the contents that the delegates were interested in, especially analyzing in depth the current situation, difficulties and obstacles in planning, model conversion, investment, construction, business, exploitation and market management in Nghe An province.

The Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that, compared with Decree 02, many markets have not met the standards on stall area, but in practice in rural areas, the requirements are basically met.

On the other hand, the number of markets that do not meet fire prevention and fighting requirements is still very large, including many markets built by people themselves. From 2021 to now, public investment capital has been allocated 41 billion VND to build, renovate and upgrade markets. However, in addition to 176 markets with management boards established by the district level, other markets have limited state management.

Currently, attracting investment into markets still faces many difficulties related to legal procedures, efficiency... while state budget resources are limited, so investment, management and market development have not met requirements.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh affirmed that Nghe An province is one of the localities determined, proactive, and leading in the fight against trade fraud. However, this work is facing many difficulties. In the coming time, the province will direct all levels and sectors to implement it resolutely.