Many local businesses such as Viet Tien, Viethy, and Hafasco are now confronted with the problem of fake goods. In fact, the ministries and agencies involved find it difficult to address the situation.

The director of Hanosimex Fashion Joint Stock Company, Vu Thi Ngoc Lan says that one year after separating from the Hanosimex Corporation, her company has encountered numerous difficulties in coping with fake goods. She has seen a lot of fake products using the company’s name. It is also surprising that some vendors admitted openly that their goods are fake without fear of repercussions. Ms Lan adds that it costs her company much time and money to produce goods for local consumption rather than for export. Meanwhile, Hanosimex knock-offs are being sold randomly in the streets.

At a low price of only VND25,000 per shirt, Hanosimex products should have been the best sellers in the rural market, especially when there was rumour that Chinese clothes contained high levels of formaldehyde. However, fake goods continue to slice a piece off Hanosimex’s pie.

Nguyen The Cuong, Director of the Trang My Company in the northern province of Bac Giang, says that his company specialises in producing paper with the motto “Vietnam Trademark – International Quality for Vietnamese”. The company has faced difficulties caused by the global financial crisis, but its products still dominate the local market. However, it has to cope with the problem of fake goods, which are considered the company’s “fellow-travellers”.

Regarding the cooperation between businesses and the market management agency, Ms Lan says that market management inspectors hardly investigate low-value fake products because the sanctions are too weak. In such cases, if they get involved, they will not start their investigation directly, instead, they ask for reports, business licenses and quality registration documents. This takes time and the counterfeit goods may be removed before the agency can intervene. For instance, Hanosimex detected many fake products, but none of them have been investigated. Therefore, businesses had to protect themselves by changing their anti-fake-product stamps. Nevertheless, they are unable to stop fake products as their new stamps can be copied easily and quickly.

In her opinion, the market management agency should guide businesses on how to issue stamps like high-class international trademarks. Local businesses cannot use this because their products’ value is small while the stamps are expensive. For example, a product worth only VND25,000 can not use a stamp worth VND350,000.

For Mr Cuong, his paper products are now sold in 42 provinces and cities nationwide, but sales are not stable as his products cost more than the counterfeit products. Consumers find it difficult to identify fake products because they use the trademark stamp of the Trang My Company.

Similar situations have happened to many other businesses, such as Viet Tien, Viethy and Hafaso. However, most of them have no choice but to live together with the fake goods. The market management agency has failed to investigate such fake products for lack of staff. In other words, failing to combat counterfeit products means losing opportunities to spur up the development of Vietnamese trademarks.