Fraud still a big trade concern for Vietnam
Vietnam and the mainland should step up efforts to regulate bilateral trade to help realise the potential of growing economic ties, according to experts in Hanoi.
The governments must work harder to stop problems of fraud in business transactions, said Nguyen Phuc Khanh, vice-president of Hanoi's Foreign Trade University.
The professor's assessment comes as trade between the two countries is set to top US$5 billion this year. Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to sign a series of trade agreements with Vietnamese leaders today in Hanoi.
The mainland is Vietnam's largest trading partner - a big supplier of products such as small machinery, equipment, household and consumer goods. Vietnam exports seafood, fruit, clothes and crude oil across the border.
Professor Nguyen said as many as 10 per cent of Vietnamese companies complained of contract violations and mainland firms' failure to pay for goods.
Widespread smuggling has resulted in massive losses in tariff revenue in both countries.
Analysts said Hanoi and Beijing must establish mechanisms to resolve such problems and give companies a formal channel to resolve trade disputes.
Professor Nguyen noted that some of the bilateral agreements that would be signed today addressed those issues but established only frameworks and did not include specific action.
The vice-director of the Vietnam's National Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities Institute of China Studies, Nguyen Kim Bao, believed the massive flow of fake or low-quality Chinese products to Vietnam was a big issue.
The professor cited a shipment in July in which mineral water was reportedly contained in old chemical bottles.
'People with money don't want to buy Chinese products. The quality is just too low,' said Professor Nguyen.
