What Vietnamese spend their money on?

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese rank seventh in the world in the amount of gold consumed, the third in Asia in the volume of beer drunk and it always is one of the biggest instant noodle consumers in Asia.

Vietnamese like gold

The report of the World Gold Council (WGC) showed that while the world’s demand decreased by 51 percent in 2013, the demand for gold still increased by 23 percent and the demand for gold jewelries by 4 percent in Vietnam.

An expert noted that the WGC’s report is reliable. “The market is now quiet, but this does not mean that it is frozen. People keep buying gold. This is why 70 tons of gold put into auctions by the State Bank has been sold out,” he said.

General Director of VGB Tran Thanh Hai noted that the fear for high inflation is the main reason which prompts people to continue buying gold, even though the watchdog agency has been trying every possible way to ease the “goldenization” in the national economy.

The gold price in the domestic market is VND36.06-36.13 million per tael.

Vietnamese spend billions of Dong on beer, dog meat

 While tens of thousands of businesses have shut down in the economic downturn, breweries still have been prospering with the steady growth rate of 10 percent per annum. 

This is because breweries have a vast domestic market. Vietnam has always been among the 25 biggest beer drinkers in the world, while it is the third in Asia and leader in South East Asia.

A report showed that in 2012, Vietnam consumed 3 billion liters of beer, worth $3 billion.

In 2010, Vietnamese drank 200 million liters of H. beer, one of the best-known brands in the world, ranking third to the US and French in the list of the 170 markets where the brand has been present.

Vietnamese have also been famous in the world as eating 5 million dogs a year.

They also make records in the amounts of instant noodles consumed. A report of WINA, an instant noodle association, released in mid-2013 showed that 5 billion packs of noodles is consumed in Vietnam every year.

There are 50 instant noodle manufacturers in Vietnam which make out 50 billion packs of noodle a year, according to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2012. Every Vietnamese consumes 1-3 packs a week.

Vietnamese most sparing in ASEAN

While Vietnamese are willing to spend money on their hobbies, they tend to practice thrift in daily life.

The latest report of Nielsen, a market survey firm, showed that Vietnamese are the most sparing in ASEAN.

Seventy-four percent of polled Vietnamese said they would save money after covering basic needs. The proportions were lower in other countries – 72 percent in Indonesia, 68 percent in the Philippines, 66 percent in Thailand, 64 percent in Singapore and 63 percent in Malaysia.

Ninty percent of Vietnamese said they have changed their consumption habits to save money. Most of them have cut down expenses on clothes and entertainment services. Besides, they also try to cut down expenses on gas and electricity bills.

Dat Viet and Vietnamnet

80 percent of Vietnamese still support eating dog meat

VietNamNet Bridge - The majority of Vietnamese people still support eating dog meat because this is a nutritious traditional food in the country.

A recent survey on VietNamNet, with the participation of more than 3,000 readers, showed that only a small part of them protested eating dog meat (20 percent). The majority of people still supported eating dog meat.

Up to 66 percent of the readers said that dog meat is nutritious food and it has been traditional food for a very long time. Some 13 percent said eating dog meat is okay but dog slaughtering must be strictly controlled, avoid embarrassing images.

Most readers said foreign tourists to Vietnam should respect the country’s culture. They should not condemn or boycott the Vietnamese tourism because the Vietnamese eat dog meat. Each nation has its own culture and it is unable to bring cultural norms of this nation to impose on the others. Each nation always has the dishes that other people cannot eat, even disgusting. However, if someone expresses disdain, it is the cultural stigma.

Many people also said that civilization or culture is in human behavior, in the way people communicate with others, not depending on the eating of dog meat or not.

Each dish has its history of existence. The Vietnamese has long thought that eating dog meat in the early year or early month will bring about bad lucks. But eating dog meat at the end of the year or the end of the month after having bad lucks will help chase the bad lucks. As such, they form a "culture" in eating dog meat and Vietnamese not always eat dog meat and dog meat is not daily food.

However, considering that in some ways, if possible, Vietnamese should remove dog meat from their meals.

Today, many families raise dogs as pets and they consider them as friends. Human affection for dogs has been improved, therefore, not eating dog meat will show the friendly attitude to animal lovers at home and abroad. (Vietnamnet)