PANO – The birth of the law on customer rights protection in July 2011 received much expectation from both customers and businesses amid the fierce fight against trade fraud, fake products and low-quality goods, but one year later the implementation and enforcement see a number of limitations and problems.

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Quoc Khanh and Vice Chairman of VCCI Pham Gia Tuc co-presiding the seminar

In an effort to find out the causes and solutions for the problems, the Ministry of Trade and Industry in association with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) held the seminar “One year of the implementation of the law on customer rights protection” on July 18th in Hanoi.

The seminar drew the participation of leaders of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, VCCI, the Vietnam Standards and Customers Association (VINASTAS), experts and businesses.

Addressing the seminar, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Quoc Khanh highlighted the significance of the law and the initial results of the law implementation as well as pointed to a number of difficulties that Trade and Industry Agencies at local levels and law enforcement forces met during the implementation of the law.

One of the major difficulties that Deputy Chief of the Lang Son Trade and Industry Department Bui Gia Tuan and Deputy Chief of the Market Management Department Tran Hung shared the same view was the shortage of personnel in the local management agencies and law enforcement forces.

“While the situations of the production, transportation and trade of fake products and low-quality goods become more and more complex, the Market Management Force could not have enough assets and efforts to combat the crimes,” said Tran Hung, the Deputy Chief of the Market Management Department.

Other problems that were discussed included the lack of expertise and finance for agencies and organisations to perform their functions.

During the seminar, delegates also gave several proposals and suggestions in order to implement the law better in the future.

According to Deputy Chief of the Competitiveness Department under the Trade and Industry Ministry Nguyen Phuong Nam, provincial trade and industry agencies should first improve their abilities to steer local law enforcement forces and effectively deal with complaints lodged by customers.

Representatives of the business circle at the seminar said that businesses, especially traders and producers, should continuously improve the quality of their products and raise their corporate responsibilities for customers and society as a whole. General Director for the Asia-Pacific region of Kangaroo Group, Dang Duc Dung believed that businesses could get more benefits from protecting customers’ rights.

But the Deputy Chief of the Market Management Department suggested that mass media should contribute more to the implementation of the law. According to him, mass media, on one hand, can improve the knowledge of their rights and duties, raise their awareness of fake products and low-quality goods and on the other hand, can back relevant agencies, forces and businesses in fighting trade fraud, unfair competition and intellectual property violation.

Delegates also recommended that customers should protect themselves by boycotting fake products and low-quality goods and report wrongdoings to competent agencies when they detect the cases.

Thu Nguyen