A bottle of fake dietary supplements is produced for only a few thousand dong but can be sold on the market for several hundred thousand, even millions. Boxes of fake milk and medicine with fancy foreign labels also come at an “exorbitant” cost.
Large-scale counterfeiting networks involving milk, medicine, and dietary supplements to make illegal profits on the health and trust of millions of people have existed for a long time. Therefore, people are looking forward to drastic measures from the authorities to eliminate this problem.
No restricted areas, no exceptions
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that recently many serious cases have been discovered such as fake milk in Hanoi, fake medicine in Thanh Hoa, fake food in Phu Tho, fake functional food in Hanoi, fake goods in Ho Chi Minh City; fake goods are widely traded on social networks... which have impacted and affected people's health and psychology, affected public order and security, budget loss, and negatively impacted many other aspects of social life.
Considering that there is laxity on the part of some relevant agencies and localities, the Prime Minister questioned whether it is due to a lack of responsibility; overlapping, omission of tasks... Therefore, the Prime Minister requested a strict review, clarification of the causes and responsibilities of organizations and individuals, and at the same time proposed tasks, solutions, and responsibilities of agencies, localities, and functional forces to prevent, repel, and end smuggling, trade fraud, and counterfeit goods.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs a meeting on the fight against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods. (Photo: VNA)
The Prime Minister stated that the fight against smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property rights infringement is a very important and long-term task that requires the drastic participation of the entire political system, leaders of Party committees at all levels, local authorities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the business community, and especially the people. The people must be the center of protection, the subject of the struggle, and the strength of the people must be mobilized to form a movement. The system of political organizations at the grassroots level plays a decisive role; the grassroots authorities are the core in organizing the implementation of tasks against smuggling, trade fraud, counterfeit goods, and intellectual property rights infringement. This work must be done regularly, comprehensively, continuously, and without stopping with the motto "handling one case, alerting the whole region, the whole field," "no forbidden zones, no exceptions."
Medicines and health protection foods are goods that directly affect people's health and lives. Recently, the Prime Minister has requested to step up inspection and supervision of compliance with laws on pharmaceuticals and food safety of pharmaceutical and health protection food businesses, especially in key areas through a series of consecutive directives such as Official Dispatch No. 41; Official Dispatch No. 55; Official Dispatch No. 65/CD-TTg...
Must make all efforts to fight counterfeit goods
Major General Nhu Thi Minh Nguyet - Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Crime Prevention Police (Ministry of Public Security) said that from January to April, the police force detected and handled 2,842 cases, more than 2,800 subjects, of which 24 cases were prosecuted with 36 subjects and 2,747 administrative violations were fined, with 12.8 billion VND.
“Through our practical activities, we have seen that businesses are violating, especially in the production and trading of food and milk products. The methods and tricks of the subjects in these activities are increasingly sophisticated, from setting up registration dossiers to self-declaration, organizing production, trading, and selling with many methods that are interwoven between tradition and modernity. They have infiltrated all rural areas, especially milk and functional foods, down to the cultural houses of villages and communes, and the People's Committees of the provinces have identified them so that we can have close instructions,” Major General Nhu Thi Minh Nguyet pointed out.
“There have been many analyses of cybercrimes. Although it is a virtual world, it is committed by real-life criminals, so there are solutions to prevent and combat it. Although the server is overseas, with the consensus and determination of the parties involved, it will be prevented,” Major General Nhu Thi Minh Nguyet emphasized.
When discussing solutions to combat counterfeit goods related to health care, Major General Nhu Thi Minh Nguyet proposed to urgently complete the State management model on food safety to ensure unity under one focal point as directed by the Secretariat to overcome current shortcomings to suit the reality of many localities that have streamlined the apparatus and reduced intermediary levels.
(Source: PV/Vietnam+)
“Currently, the provinces are implementing the new policy. I suggest that the State model on food safety should be implemented urgently and cannot be prolonged. If this situation continues, it will be very difficult for us to manage. Currently, the post-inspection system is mainly implemented by the provinces, but the inspections are often announced in advance and only focus on the conditions of the facilities, not checking the quality of the products or the declared indicators. Therefore, it is necessary to increase inspections, especially surprise inspections. The level of administrative penalties in the management of functional foods also needs to be increased, with severe penalties to create deterrence,” she said.
In particular, Major General Nhu Thi Minh Nguyet emphasized the need to speed up the progress of revising, summarizing and proposing amendments to the contents of Decree 15 and to include the program of amending the Food Safety Law in the National Assembly's law-making program as soon as possible, while reviewing all legal provisions and proactively developing implementing documents in accordance with reality. There are "gaps" in the law that we need to urgently "fill" instead of leaving them as they are now.
Representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Mr. Le Ba Anh - Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural and Aquatic Product Quality Management said that up to now, the documents assigning tasks and legal regulations on management and handling of administrative violations have been available. However, the implementation part is very important, especially the post-inspection part using State resources, assessing risks to identify appropriate post-inspection subjects and increasing surprise inspection activities.
Currently, the regulation requires that there must be signs of violations to conduct a surprise inspection, so signs of violations must be detected promptly. Therefore, the role of local authorities in detecting violations of production and business establishments in the area is very important and is a prerequisite. Because no one can promptly detect business establishments in the area better than local authorities, especially commune authorities, in the context of increased authority and increased resources in the coming time.
“We recommend that local authorities promptly detect production and business establishments with signs of law violations to provide information to competent authorities for handling. One of the important contents that delegates from many ministries and sectors have proposed to carry out good post-inspection activities with sampling, analysis, assessment of the situation and surveys as well as strengthening surprise inspections is to prioritize the allocation of local resources for post-inspection agencies,” Mr. Le Ba Anh emphasized.
Trading in counterfeit medicines and disease prevention drugs is done with many sophisticated tricks. (Photo: Source: Ministry of Public Security)
Lieutenant Colonel Vu Thanh Tung - Deputy Director of the Department of Investigation Police on Crimes of Corruption, Economy, and Smuggling (Ministry of Public Security) said that some problems, difficulties, and inadequacies in the issuance of current legal documents related to the fields of pharmaceuticals, food safety, and the delay in issuing regulations and instructions for law enforcement have also created loopholes for subjects to take advantage of. Therefore, this unit has consulted with the Government and relevant ministries and branches to overcome them.
“Regarding deterrence and warning, we recommend increasing the starting point for imprisonment and raising the level of fines in this field to ensure deterrence. At the same time, we must also clearly understand that preventing fake drugs and foods is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of Health but also the responsibility of the entire political system, from the central to local levels, to protect the health and race of the Vietnamese people,” he said.
Policy design needs to address urgent issues
Addressing urgent demands in the fight against counterfeit goods related to health care, the Prime Minister emphasized the situation of smuggling, trade fraud, production, circulation of counterfeit goods, fake goods, goods of unknown origin, false advertising, especially cases related to counterfeit drugs, fake milk, fake food, dirty food... which are of great concern to the people and society.
The Prime Minister stated that smuggling and making hundreds of tons of counterfeit goods without the authorities knowing, while to do this, there must be warehouses, trading and transportation activities, there are only two possibilities: One is that there is no longer the will to fight, two is that there is bribery, there is negativity; both of these must be dealt with seriously.
Therefore, it is necessary to design policies to handle the urgent issues that are currently being raised in reality, clearly specifying a responsible agency and clearly defining the authority of the agencies, close coordination between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and relevant ministries and branches in food safety management, defining responsibilities, functions and tasks, avoiding overlapping, missing tasks, and leaving no gaps in State management; urgently developing a draft law to submit to the National Assembly as soon as possible.
Fake milk warehouse discovered by authorities. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)
The Prime Minister also requested the agencies to urgently submit for promulgation a Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP dated February 2, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety.
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that in the spirit of the general direction of the General Secretary, the Secretariat and the Government on protecting people's lives and health above all, we need to thoroughly understand the entire health system from central to local levels to have effective advisory measures.
“Counterfeit goods related to the health sector need special attention, not the same as other counterfeit goods. We have implemented many solutions but many pressing problems still exist. So how can we get to the bottom of the problem and provide stronger solutions to make changes in the future,” the Minister of Health emphasized.
Regarding the review and completion of the legal framework of regulations on State management from inspection, supervision, audit, etc., according to the Minister of Health, through the opinions of localities, the Ministry will review to complete and resolutely implement the construction and completion of institutions such as guidelines for implementing the Law on Pharmacy, amending Decree 15 on food safety. It is expected that the drafting agency will submit to the Government in early June for consideration and early promulgation to resolve difficulties arising in practice regarding food safety.
Regarding the issue of decentralization and delegation of power, Minister Dao Hong Lan requested that local health sector leaders closely follow this task. The assignment of responsibilities must be clear to people and tasks, and proactively advise local leaders and authorities.
In particular, the Minister of Health proposed to rectify the implementation of tasks and public duties related to licensing, renewal, receiving declarations, inspection and testing, etc., and seriously learn from this experience. From the central to local levels, it is necessary to review and rectify any gaps or problems; thoroughly understand and raise awareness among cadres, party members, and employees in implementing the tasks...
"It's not that one 'bad apple spoils the barrel', but if we don't do it seriously, there will be problems. This is a regular job, with constant warnings and alerts. If there are still violations of the law, we propose strict handling according to regulations, no forbidden zones, no leniency. We are doing tasks related to health, the most important is the health of the people. Therefore, relevant units must thoroughly grasp, rectify, and remind the performance of public duties and tasks of units in the industry," Ms. Lan emphasized.
Another issue, the head of the health sector also admitted that the fight against counterfeit goods and commercial fraud has many difficulties. The health sector alone cannot do it without the participation of ministries, departments, law enforcement agencies, the role of Party committees, local authorities... The state management agency itself cannot reach all businesses, but a strict punishment will serve as a warning to the whole region.
Faced with the current widespread situation of counterfeit and poor quality goods, according to experts, if management agencies, businesses and the whole society do not take drastic and synchronous action with urgent and radical solutions, the risk of losing market control and losing social trust will become a reality, leaving unpredictable consequences for many generations./.
Readers are invited to read the series of articles:
(Vietnam+)
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/truy-tan-goc-trac-tan-ngon-hang-gia-quyet-bit-lo-hong-xu-ly-khong-vung-cam-post1041422.vnp
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