Viet Nam News
HCM CITY — Traders in five markets and two trading centres in HCM City on Wednesday signed an agreement with the HCM City’s Market Management Department not to stockpile or trade counterfeit goods.
The agreement was signed at a recent conference on laws to combat counterfeit goods and goods that violate the intellectual copyright law.
The signatories of the agreement were traders in Bến Thành Market in District 1, Kim Biên Market in District 5, Bình Tây Market in District 6, Tân Bình Market in Tân Bình District, Bà Chiểu Market in Bình Thạnh District and the two trade centres Saigon Square and An Đông Plaza.
Organised by the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), the conference encouraged companies and traders to join the fight against counterfeit and fake products.
The event was a chance for the city’s Market Management Department to explain to Japanese investors the city’s efforts to fight counterfeit goods.
Takimoto Koji, head representative of Jetro in HCM City, said that counterfeit products affected not only trade relations between the two countries but also customers.
Fighting these products would create an equal competitive environment for companies, he said.
At the conference, company representatives said that production of counterfeit and fake goods was becoming more common and sophisticated.
Within a short time after new goods are launched, counterfeit and fake products appear and are traded in the market and even in big shops.
Many of these products are from China, while a smaller portion are from Việt Nam.
Nguyễn Thành Phương, an official from the Market Management Department, said that, in the first five months of this year, authorities discovered about 200 cases involving the trade of counterfeit products and products violating intellectual rights related to labelling.
The department seized nearly 2,700 pairs of shoes, 250kg of waterproof material, and 49,000 items of cloth, sunglasses, swatches, supplements and cosmetics.
The total value of the products was VNĐ1.5 billion (US$66 million). — VNS
