On May 14, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a meeting with ministries, branches and central agencies to assess the work of combating smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, intellectual property violations, and goods origin in the first months of 2025.
At the meeting, the Prime Minister requested that the first of all launch a peak campaign to fight, search, prevent smuggling, trade fraud, production, and circulation of counterfeit, counterfeit, and goods of unknown origin, copyright infringement, intellectual property infringement, and goods origin.
Launching a peak attack is a strong, timely and necessary move, especially in the context of consecutive shocking incidents such as fake milk in Hanoi, fake medicine in Thanh Hoa, fake functional foods in Phu Tho...
However, if we only " conquer" without "rooting" and cleaning from within, this "war" will be difficult to end and achieve the desired results.
treating the root, sometimes being at the management apparatus. The fact that Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong - former Director of the Department of Food Safety, Ministry of Health, has just been prosecuted and temporarily detained for accepting bribes to legalize a fake food ring is the nearest and clearest example.
The person who used to be the "gateway" for the safety of every Vietnamese family's food tray has become the link of a food counterfeiting ring, as allegedly said, an alarming thing that cannot be greater.
Therefore, the fight against counterfeit goods, in addition to "running out", needs to come with a long-term, comprehensive, synchronous strategy and start from within the management system.
Mechanism loopholes must be closed; responsibilities must be clearly defined to each industry and level; it is impossible to manage freely because of "crossing husbands" or "lack of people". As directed by the Prime Minister: not to reorganize the apparatus but to create "legal gaps".
Along with that, it is necessary to urgently clarify the specific responsibilities of organizations and individuals for counterfeit goods spreading on the network, in the market, and in the distribution system.
It is necessary to handle not only the subjects of production, but also those who are protectionists, licensers, Helpers or ignore, then publicize the results, to regain the people's trust.
In particular, not only the central or provincial level, but also the commune and ward levels, the closest to the people, also need to be assigned specific tasks in supervising production and business in the area. We cannot leave the situation of "everyone has the right, but no one is responsible".
Every fake product, especially floating food on the market, that is included in people's daily meals is a big wound on social trust.
If we want to heal this wound, we cannot only clean up the market but also have to bravely "clean up" the apparatus, starting with "scrapers" that are "leaked" like the case of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong and his colleagues.
