Nearly 70 percent of Vietnamese users highly appreciate the quality, creativeness, and reliability of Taiwanese information and communication technology products, a survey by US-based market research firm AC Nielsen has found.

However, many users are worried about a decline in Taiwanese product quality due to the fierce price war with American and Japanese products.

Releasing this information at a workshop organised in HCM City Nov. 16 on sharing experiences about a new market by the city ICT Press Club and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), TAITRA chief representative in Vietnam Tso Wei Dar said: "We would like to share our practical experiences in developing the IT industry with local enterprises.

"We would like to hear how we can help create a distribution system for Taiwanese electronic products in Vietnam ."

Pham Thien Nghe, a representative of the HCM City Computers Association's ICT Reseller Club, warned: "To develop the Taiwanese brand name, companies and distributors should not cut costs related to quality verification and ensure quality."

Ho Quoc Hue, distributor manager of CMC firm, said: "When entering the Vietnamese market, Taiwanese manufacturers should have a long-term policy, commitment, and business strategy to support distributors and bring real benefits to customers."

Delegates pointed out that Taiwanese brand names suffered from the disadvantage of not investing to build their image and instead trying to cut marketing costs.

"If we want a good marketing campaign, distributors have to persuade Taiwanese manufacturers to take part," Mai Van Cong, director of Tam Nhin (Vision) company, a distributor, lamented.

"But this should be a strategic task."

He also said that the prestige of a distributor was a factor in sales because many customers care about where they buy the product rather than where it is made.

ICT hardware sales in Vietnam this year are expected to be around 7.5 billion USD, lower than targeted after the industry was hit by the recent plunge in the value of the VND.

There are around 12,000 retail ICT distributors in the country employing 50,000 workers. Around 69 percent of ICT sales is in HCM City and 29 percent in Hanoi./.