The Chairman of Vietnam Retail Association Dinh Thi My Loan said, in the past 10 years, there had been concerns over Vietnam’s decision to open retail market, which can have negative impact on traditional and modern distribution channels, due to the presences of foreign retailers and the acquisition of domestic retailers. However, in reality, the Vietnam retailers’ community has shown its independence, which is gradually adopted to new situation and improving competitiveness. 

After 10 years of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), Vietnam’s retail market has transformed progressively, which is one of the high potential market for local and foreign investors. The wave of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) has been booming in recent years. For example, the acquisition of Metro with 19 centers and related real estates with value of 655 million Euro and Big C Vietnam with 32 super markets for 1.14 billion USD. 

At present, the revenue from wholesale and retail activities have contributed to 14% of Vietnam’s GDP, in which retail market is attracting high amount of foreign investment. The market scale has been growing rapidly. In 2010, the retail market was 88 billion USD, but in 2016, this number has increased to 158 billion USD, far exceeding estimations of foreign market surveys. Despite the market has a lot of opportunities and potential for development, but in the context of industrial revolution 4.0 and changes in consumption trend, there remains challenges for domestic retailers.

Currently, the Ministry of Industry & Trade is taking opinions from related administrative agencies with regard to the Strategy to facilitate trade until 2025, with vision until 2035, as the objective of revenue for the retail sector by 2025 to reach 485 billion USD and increase to 200 billion USD by 2035. 

Mrs. Dinh Thi My Loan said, the retail sector needs to focus on the growth target and its competitiveness. With this being said, it is necessary to have a clear strategy to facilitate growth through creativity. Under pressure of fierce competition, anyone left behind will be out of the market. Besides, there should be more technologies applied in the retail distribution channels, supporting enterprises to expand market and take Vietnamese goods to ASEAN and all over the world. Vietnam’s retail sector has to growth faster to achieve the government target, as by 2020 to have 40% of market shares, which is currently under 30%.