A woman sell fruits on street (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Some public areas in Ho Chi Minh City have been assigned for street vendors, giving them a chance to do stable trade along sidewalks in the city.
This is part of efforts of the municipal authorities towards building a legal framework for street vendors.
The selected areas for this pilot project are located in District 1, including the sidewalk of the streets Nguyen Van Chiem, Pham Ngoc Thach and Hai Ba Trung.
The project requires all street traders from the district to do their business in certain fixed streets.
It is expected to create a stable trading environment for about 500 street vendors operating in the district. They have also benefited from support policies by the State, including taking part in courses on food hygiene and environmental protection and to improve their communication skills.
Along with these models, the municipal authorities have also built regulations on food safety and the urban environment to apply to street vendor activities in the city.
Piloted projects to ensure hygiene and safety for food sold in streets, which have been arranged in a number of districts from 2014, have also proved effective, contributing to calling on street traders to strictly implement relevant regulations.
Lam Thi Ngoc Nga, a Pho “noodle soup” vendor in district 3 said she joined training courses on food safety and practices to ensure proper hygiene while selling her goods.
Such projects aim to support the municipal authorities in managing street traders and to control hygiene standards in street food, thus maintaining the beauty of the city.
According to the General Statistics Office, HCM City is home to about 400,000 vendors. Many of them have stable incomes from street trading.
Le Dieu Anh, coordinator of the National Programme of the Association of Cities of Vietnam said street trading creates jobs for a significant number of people, especially the unskilled workforce.
This trading form should be facilitated in urban areas, she stressed.-VNA
