Circular No. 12/NT guiding additional matters concerning the organization of commerce at the district level

CIRCULAR

OF THE MINISTRY OF DOMESTIC TRADE NUMBER 12/NT, JUNE 21, 1980 GUIDING ON COMPLEMENTS REGARDING THE ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY TRADING

Implementing Directive No. 33-CT/TU of the Party Central Committee and Resolution No. 33-CP of the Council of Ministers, and Circular No. 418-TTg of the Prime Minister on building counties, the Ministry of Domestic Trade issued Circular No. 491-NT dated August 16, 1978 and Circular No. 2-NT dated February 7, 1979 guiding the rectification and strengthening of trading organization in southern and northern provinces.

Due to the requirement to serve production and promote the purchase of food grains and foodstuffs, from the Sixth Plenary Session of the Central Committee to the present, the Party and Government have issued many documents on circulation and distribution organizations, including specific provisions regarding the organization of county trading.

Now, the Ministry of Domestic Trade issues this circular to supplement Circular No. 419-NT and Circular No. 2-NT and to provide detailed guidance on the organization of county trading as follows:

ON THE ORGANIZATION OF STATE TRADING ENTERPRISES AT THE COUNTY LEVEL

I. FORMS OF ORGANIZATION

In Resolution No. 25-TU dated April 1, 1980, the Party Central Committee clearly stated: "...it is necessary to accelerate the construction of county trading companies that engage in both purchasing and selling...", and through practical trials in organizing county trading in some localities, it has been seen that under the current conditions where agricultural products in counties have not yet developed strongly, with limited quantities purchased, purchasing must be combined with selling to facilitate the implementation of bilateral economic contracts, and given the limitations of cadres at the county level, establishing state trading enterprises at the county level according to the model of a comprehensive trading company is appropriate. Therefore, the Ministry stipulates:

1. For plains, midland counties as well as mountainous and island counties:

Uniformly organize one county trading company in each county, which will both purchase agricultural products and foodstuffs and sell consumer goods retail. Under the current economic conditions, the company may also be assigned additional tasks in public catering and service businesses. The county trading company is an independent economic accounting unit with full legal personality and is directly managed by the People's Committee of the county.

However, for some counties with large sales volumes of purchases and retail sales that previously organized two companies (a procurement agency company and a retail company), whose operations were stable and now agreed by the local party committee and People's Committee to maintain, they can continue to retain their original structure without disrupting the organizational setup, thereby affecting business operations. But it is necessary to streamline the management structures of the two companies to make them more efficient and to strengthen cooperative relations between the two companies to ensure that purchasing is closely linked with selling.

2. For suburban counties of centrally-administered cities:

a. Suburban counties of centrally-administered cities that are planned as belts for food or vegetables, with the task of regularly supplying fresh food items to the city center, where the distance for transporting goods from the county to the city is short, and there are conditions to quickly organize the movement of goods to the market, the state trading in these areas should be established according to a separate organizational form as follows:

- Food stations or stores in these counties will still be directly subordinate to city food, agricultural product, and vegetable companies, which will manage and coordinate all stages of the fresh food and vegetable circulation process within the entire city to ensure efficiency.

- As for the business of selling industrial materials and public catering services, a retail industrial materials company and a public catering company (or enterprise) will be set up in the county to handle these tasks. These companies are independent economic accounting units with full legal personality and are directly managed by the People's Committee of the county.

b. For suburban counties where the commodity economy has not yet developed strongly, and the supply of food items to the city center is not large and regular, the state trading in these areas should be established according to the model of a comprehensive county trading company as mentioned in point 1.

II. TASKS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY

a. Tasks:

The county trading company has the following specific business tasks:

1. To serve and promote production development, actively contribute to tapping the economic potential of the county, by:

- Closely following production, understanding the potential of each base and each household; based on this, positively influencing production, including providing part of the production materials that the company deals with to the base;

- Investigating and researching demand, proposing and advising production to expand business and develop new products, utilizing the existing labor force, land, and facilities in the county;

- Depending on specific conditions and capabilities, expanding self-production and processing activities for certain products related to circulation, especially processing vegetables and condiments, to contribute to balancing supply and demand for consumer goods in the county.

2. Purchasing local products, including:

- Purchasing agricultural products and foodstuffs within the county (excluding rice, seafood, medicinal herbs, specialty exports, and agricultural raw materials in concentrated production areas near factories purchased by other sectors).

Agricultural products that are both domestic consumption goods, export goods, and industrial raw materials, which were previously purchased by multiple sectors, shall now be centrally purchased by the county trading company and then allocated to relevant sectors according to national plan targets.

- Purchasing or processing certain local construction materials such as bricks, tiles, lime, garden bamboo, garden wood, roofing leaves... and handicrafts produced from local materials or waste materials, which are not handled by provincial or central companies.

- Purchasing waste materials and waste products from agencies, schools, and residents in the county.

The second task above is the primary responsibility of the county trading company; to ensure centralized control over these sources, in addition to organizing direct purchases from producers, the county trading company must also utilize cooperative buying and selling societies and private traders to act as agents for purchases.

3. Internal procurement from provincial and central trading companies, including chemical products, processed food, processed agricultural products, construction materials, and fuel distributed according to plans by the central and provincial authorities for consumption within the district.

As for fresh food items, districts usually have to solve this issue independently; however, if a district has many construction sites or factories that cannot meet their food needs and must request the province to allocate from other places, then the district's trading company can directly sign contracts with neighboring district trading companies based on the distribution plan of the trading company, without necessarily going through the provincial trading company.

4. Wholesale activities, including:

- Selling agricultural products and food to provincial companies, central companies, or neighboring district companies; exporting agricultural products to foreign trade and selling raw agricultural materials to factories. All wholesale targets must follow the national plan of the central or provincial authorities.

The purchase and sale of these goods, as well as payment, shall be conducted under economic contracts signed between the district trading company and the provincial company, central company, or other consuming units. However, for perishable food items such as pigs, eggs, poultry, vegetables, etc., a three-party delivery method can be applied at the production site among producers - the district trading company - consuming units to ensure rapid movement of goods, reduce spoilage, and enhance economic efficiency.

- Exchanging goods outside the plan with internal trading companies or organizations of other sectors according to mutual agreement between both parties.

5. Supplying goods to rural cooperative purchasing and sales societies acting as retail agents, including essential goods distributed according to quantity standards for households, goods exchanged bidirectionally, and some normally circulating goods. Alongside delivering goods to cooperatives, the company must closely guide, assist, and inspect the cooperatives regarding quantity standards, methods, prices, etc., all aimed at ensuring that goods delivered to rural areas are distributed according to policy, to the right recipients, and at regulated prices.

6. Retail sales of consumer goods locally (excluding rice, pharmaceuticals, books, stamps, gasoline, and lubricants), including:

- Direct retail sales to cadres, workers, employees, and residents in towns and agencies, enterprises (including those of the central and provincial levels located in the district) according to the methods prescribed by the central or provincial authorities.

- Direct retail sales to producers of certain consumer goods included in bilateral economic contracts currently not available through rural cooperative purchasing and sales societies (such as bicycles, radios, watches, etc.) and in villages where these societies are weak and unable to handle the task of retailing bidirectional exchange goods.

7. Public catering and service business, including:

- Public catering services within the district (excluding major transportation hubs and large concentrated industrial zones managed by the provincial public catering company).

- Catering services for certain conferences requested by the district.

- Guiding and assisting agencies and enterprises in organizing and managing collective dining halls; actively preparing conditions to directly manage collective dining halls in the district to serve the living needs of workers and staff well.

- Operating certain necessary services to serve the people in the district, such as tailoring, mending, dyeing clothes, repairing bicycles, watches...

8. Stockpiling goods for consumption in the district:

The stockpile of the district trading company mainly consists of consumer goods, processed food, and some construction materials supplied by the province for retail sales in the district. The inventory of these goods in the district depends on the supply from the provincial company but should not exceed 60 days maximum; for agricultural products and fresh food, the district trading company only handles short-term storage primarily for waiting purposes (long-term storage serving the consumption needs of the province and central level is handled by the provincial and central companies).

During the implementation of the above-mentioned tasks of commodity circulation, the company must strengthen management aspects of labor, materials, goods, assets, capital... according to strict economic accounting systems and actively participate in socialist transformation of private trade and market management in the district as assigned by the District People's Committee.

b. Powers:

The district trading company has all the powers of an independent state-owned enterprise with legal personality, specifically:

1. The company can proactively engage in transactions and sign specific economic contracts with related production, transportation, and consumption units on an equal basis. Alongside trading planned goods according to directive prices, the company can proactively trade additional unplanned goods according to agreed prices with production bases inside and outside the district, in accordance with established policies and regulations.

2. The company receives state capital and can borrow bank capital, including working capital, investment capital for basic construction projects... according to approved quotas and use these funds in the most beneficial way for the company's business operations.

3. The company can recruit temporary and long-term labor according to general policies, wage systems, and labor quotas approved by superiors. It can promote, raise salaries, commend, and discipline cadres, workers, and employees in the company from deputy store managers (and equivalent positions) downwards.

4. The company can allocate specific daily and monthly plan quotas and labor norms to subordinate units and individuals. It can apply organizational and technical measures and necessary inspection and control measures to ensure that each individual and subordinate unit mentioned above complete these quotas and norms effectively.

5. The company is permitted to select and apply appropriate salary payment forms and bonus systems suitable for the working conditions of each department and type of labor within the company to motivate and stimulate cadres, workers, and employees to increase labor productivity and improve work efficiency.

6. The company is allowed to establish three funds (business development incentive fund, award fund, welfare fund) according to the current regulations and utilize these funds in the most beneficial manner for improving business operations and techniques, expanding production and business activities, improving working conditions, and caring for the lives of workers and staff within the company.

7. The company has the right to litigate against units and individuals who violate contracts, embezzle, waste, causing significant losses to the company's assets.

III. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND BUSINESS NETWORK OF THE COMPANY

a. Management structure:

The highest commander at the county trading company is the Company Director. The Company Director manages the company's activities under the head system.

Assisting the Company Director in managing the company are from two to three Deputy Directors; each Deputy Director is assigned to assist the Director in deeply guiding a specific field of work or a certain commodity sector.

The County Trading Company Director is appointed by the Provincial People's Committee upon the proposal of the County People's Committee and the Department/Office of Trade. Deputy Directors of the company are appointed by the Department/Office Director of Trade after consultation with the County People's Committee. Generally, it is necessary to appoint personnel who are familiar with trading activities, have experience in organizational and economic management, business management, have completed university-level training or attended mid-to-senior level cadre management courses in the industry, possess secondary education or higher, and have good health to undertake the tasks. In cases where there are no qualified personnel available locally, the province must transfer qualified personnel from the Department/Office of Trade or provincial companies to the county.

To assist the director in managing specific aspects of management, generally, the county trading company is organized with the following three specialized departments:

- Planning, Operations, Price, and Logistics Department (referred to as Planning and Operations),

- Accounting, Finance, Statistics Department (referred to as Accounting),

- Organization, Cadre Affairs, Labor Wages, Administrative Management Department (referred to as Organization and Administration).

The above departments are headed by a department head. An assistant deputy head may be appointed to help the department head. The department heads are appointed by the County People's Committee upon the recommendation of the Company Director. Assistant deputy heads are appointed by the Company Director upon the recommendation of the department head.

Personnel selected and appointed to the positions of department head and deputy head must have at least completed commercial high school or attended short-term training courses according to program B2, with secondary education or higher.

For small-scale county trading companies in mountainous areas, initially, they may not establish departments but instead set up task forces. The leaders of these task forces are designated by the Company Director.

The staffing of the management structure of the county trading company shall be arranged by the Company Director, with a maximum of no more than 18% of the total number of cadres, workers, and staff in the unit.

b. Network of business and production units directly under the company:

The company's business and production activities are carried out through the following network of stores, stations, warehouses, etc.:

a. Specialized stores located in the county seat (town) include chemical products stores, agricultural products-food stores, construction materials-fuel stores, tailoring-repair stores, etc. Chemical product and construction material-fuel stores mainly serve retail sales to workers, officials, and residents in the town and to county, provincial, and central agencies and enterprises located in the county. Agricultural products-food stores both sell retail and purchase from surrounding villages around the town.

Supplying consumer goods to village trade cooperatives in the town area is also handled by the town stores to facilitate the combination of purchasing and selling.

b. Area stores include chemical products stores, agricultural products-food purchasing stores, or comprehensive stores dealing in both chemical products and agricultural products in the area. In the South, where village trade cooperatives are weak, the combination of purchasing and selling is mainly carried out by area stores, thus the main form of business should be comprehensive. Generally, one area store should be arranged for every four to six northern villages and three to four southern villages. These stores are responsible for supplying goods to village trade cooperatives, serving production, and collecting sources of goods, while also retailing chemical products and food to industrial and agricultural farms, teachers, retired officials, and exchanging some goods bidirectionally with producers in the area.

Currently, in the South, due to limited material and technical facilities and goods at the county level, the establishment of area stores does not mechanically follow the number of villages but flexibly applies one of two forms based on the availability of goods and facilities: setting up fixed stores in each area or establishing mobile buying-selling teams that go deep into villages and hamlets to directly collect and exchange goods with individual households.

c. Collection stations for single or several types of agricultural products with large yields are established in concentrated production villages in the county to both mobilize and assist production and organize local collection.

d. Eating establishments are located in the county town or at ferry, bus, and railway station areas in the county (excluding those managed by provincial catering companies) and collective dining halls (if any).

e. The company warehouse is located in the county town or at major transportation hubs near the town: the task of the company warehouse is to classify, select, pre-process, store, and supply goods to area stores and wholesale according to direct orders from the company.

The establishment, abolition of the aforementioned stores and stations, and the appointment of store managers and station managers are decided by the County People's Committee upon the proposal of the County Trading Company Director. The criteria for selecting and arranging personnel for these positions are similar to those for department heads mentioned above, but primarily involve promotion from among the existing staff at stores, warehouses, and stations.

The staffing of the direct business production units of the county trading company mainly depends on the scale of sales volume and the corresponding labor quota for that sales volume. In the South, initially determining the staffing for stores and purchasing stations mainly relies on the headcount quota based on the number of communes to ensure sufficient staff to cover all communes, coordinating with commune cooperative supply and marketing societies to effectively promote production and procurement activities.

The arrangement of the trading network of the aforementioned county trading company must also harmoniously combine with the networks of commune cooperative supply and marketing societies, private traders acting as agents or trustees, markets, etc., to ensure the formation of a reasonable social trading network within the county, serving production and daily life conveniently.

IV. MAJOR RELATIONSHIPS OF THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY

The county trading company is both a component part of the locally managed county economy and a grassroots unit under the state trading system led by the Ministry of Commerce. Therefore, the company is subject to direct guidance from the County People's Committee and management according to industry by the Ministry of Commerce through the Department of Commerce regarding policy, system, method, planning, standards, economic and technical quotas, professional expertise, etc.

Below are specific relationships:

A. BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY:

1. Implementing sectoral management over the county trading company, the Department of Commerce has the responsibility to:

- Transmit to local trading companies (including provincial and county companies) the policies and systems of the Party and Government concerning circulation-distribution of consumer goods and major work guidelines of the Ministry for the entire industry; guide the practical application in local conditions;

- Disseminate and guide on the system of indicators, forms, and business practices for building plans and programs; promptly inform about directions, inspection schedules, quotas, or calculation criteria to assist the county trading company in formulating its own plans and programs consistent with those of the entire industry. When the industry plan is approved by the province, it should notify the county trading company of the industry plan portion for that county, while also assigning additional guiding indicators (such as detailed product indicators; quarterly plan indicators, and other quality indicators such as labor productivity, average wage...);

- Allocate temporarily the commercial discount quota and procurement surplus between the provincial company and the county trading company;

- Direct the organization of quarterly supply meetings for county companies to transact, sign, and settle specific purchase-sale contracts with provincial companies as well as among county companies;

- Inspect and urge county trading companies to strictly implement national policies, systems, plan indicators, and signed economic contracts, especially inspect and urge the supply of industrial consumer goods related to the production and living of the entire province and the country; timely adjust the supply of industrial consumer goods to counties according to the actual procurement progress and agricultural product mobilization of each county;

- Organize summary, final review meetings, and specialized discussions to evaluate the implementation of the industry's overall political tasks or specific management aspects, and individual units;

- Train and enhance professional skills for county commerce cadres. Discuss with the County People's Committee to select and recommend deputy directors of the county trading company, and propose to the Provincial People's Committee to appoint the director of the county trading company;

- Management of the county trading company's capital, in principle, will be delegated to the responsible County People's Committee to contribute to establishing the county as a level with its own budget, but currently, while the circulating capital and loss subsidy fund according to policy are still provided by the central budget through the Ministry of Commerce, the Department has the responsibility to continue allocating and balancing capital for the county trading company's operations and monitor the use of various types of capital in the counties.

2. Adhering to the above vertical guidance, the county trading company must:

- Strictly comply with unified central and provincial policies and systems concerning circulation-distribution; in cases where adaptation is made according to specific county circumstances, formulate plans consistent with the spirit of the policies and systems disseminated by the Department of Commerce;

- Formulate unit plans in accordance with the unified industry indicators and forms, submit the draft plan to the Department of Commerce within the specified time limit for consolidation and coordination at the industry level, and protect the plan before the Department of Commerce before submitting it to the County People's Committee for approval;

- Reflect difficulties and seek solutions from the Department of Commerce in a timely manner during the implementation of policies, systems, and national plans, particularly issues beyond the county's authority to resolve;

- Fully participate and contribute many practical opinions to meetings and discussions convened by the Department of Commerce;

- Strictly adhere to reporting systems, regular and extraordinary economic information systems stipulated by the Ministry of Commerce or the Department of Commerce.

B. BETWEEN PROVINCIAL COMPANIES AND THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY:

The county trading company and provincial companies are independent economic accounting units with legal personality, thus they must be equal to each other in trade relations and financial transactions. However, considering their operational nature, the county and provincial companies are two units implementing consecutive stages of a single business process, so there is a cooperative relationship among these companies across industries to ensure smooth circulation with reasonable circulation costs.

In this relationship, the provincial company, which specializes in only one product line and engages in wholesale trade, is entrusted with the responsibility to guide technical business operations of each product line for county companies. Conversely, the county trading company, directly serving consumers, collects many customer opinions on policies, systems, circulation methods of goods, as well as the quality of socialist commerce services, must therefore have the responsibility to reflect the dynamics of supply and demand, difficulties, and its own experiences in operating each product line in the county to be compiled and studied by the provincial company.

C. BETWEEN THE COUNTY PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE AND THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY:

As the administrative body directly managing the county trading company and caring for the people's livelihood in the county, the County People's Committee has the responsibility to:

- Assign the legal decree plan indicators to the county trading company (including business plans and other plans such as labor, wages, finance, basic construction...). The indicators assigned by the County People's Committee to the county trading company include both the officially allocated provincial plan portion and the additional county plan portion based on balancing and fully exploiting the economic potential of the county;

- Direct the business activities of the county trading company in accordance with state policies, systems, and plan indicators, and effectively serve production and local life.

For products managed uniformly by the central government and province, the County People's Committee directs the county trading company to purchase, mobilize for the province and central government, and distribute to consumption targets within the county according to state policy and plan indicators.

For products not uniformly managed by the central government and province, the County People's Committee bases on general principles and policies of the state and guidance from the Department of Commerce to direct the county trading company to develop specific business plans for each product and organize business activities to serve production and the people's livelihood in the county well.

- Decide on the locations and hours of operation of the network of stores, warehouses, and stations under the county trading company (based on vertical sector guidance).

- Decide on promotions, salary increases, appointments, rewards, and disciplinary actions for store managers, station chiefs, department heads of the county company, and propose to the Provincial People's Committee or the Department of Commerce to resolve these matters for the company director and deputy director.

Therefore, regarding the above issues and contents, the county trading company must directly report and seek directives from the County People's Committee and strictly comply with all decisions of the County People's Committee. In cases where the county decision conflicts with or is not suitable for the policy of the vertical sector, the county trading company still must strictly implement the decision of the County People's Committee while simultaneously reporting to the Department of Commerce.

To facilitate the County People's Committee's consideration and resolution of issues quickly, the county trading company must highly emphasize the spirit of initiative, independently study and apply central and sector policies into the specific circumstances of the locality, and propose reasonable solutions to report to the County People's Committee for consideration and decision.

D. BETWEEN THE SPECIALIZED DEPARTMENTS OF THE COUNTY PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE AND THE COUNTY TRADING COMPANY:

Under the direct leadership of the County People's Committee, the county trading company is not subordinate to the County Material - Trade - Livelihood Department or other specialized departments of the county. However, generally, before resolving issues related to the county trading company, the County People's Committee needs to assign relevant specialized departments to research and consolidate opinions from related parties to report to the committee. Therefore, the county trading company should closely coordinate with relevant specialized departments of the county to discuss and seek consensus on issues that will be brought to the committee for resolution.

Among the specialized departments, the Material - Trade - Livelihood Department is responsible for assisting the County People's Committee in directing the county trading company in implementing state plans, adhering to policies, systems, and methods. This department will always closely monitor all aspects of the county trading company's activities and regularly convene meetings with the company to address bilateral economic contract work (as stipulated in Circular 9-LB/TT dated April 19, 1980, guiding the organization and operation of the County Material - Trade - Livelihood Department). Therefore, the county trading company must maintain close relations and listen to, absorb guidance and comments from the department on all aspects of the company's activities and fully implement bilateral economic contract tasks assigned by the department.

V. REGARDING THE ORGANIZATION OF COOPERATIVE TRADE IN COUNTIES

On January 13, 1979, the Council of Ministers issued Decision No. 374/CP expanding the business activities of socialist commerce, stating: "state-owned trading establishments, cooperative buying and selling cooperatives, and cooperative consumption cooperatives must vigorously engage in trading non-plan goods outside the price directive and contract..." Practical experience also shows that cooperative trade has many favorable conditions and unique advantages in trading non-plan goods in rural areas. Therefore, alongside building county trading companies, localities must continue to strengthen and enhance cooperative trade organizations in the county area in the following directions:

1. At the commune level:

It is necessary to continue consolidating and improving existing commune-level buying and selling cooperatives, especially those that are weak, and establish and develop new buying and selling cooperatives in communes without them to quickly improve and perform the following five tasks:

- Retail agency for consumer goods;

- Commissioned procurement of agricultural products, foodstuffs within the plan and contract, particularly products from household sideline economies of cooperative members and individual farmers;

- Conducting business with goods outside the plan to serve the people's life in the commune;

- Organizing service activities in rural areas (serving weddings, funerals, repairs, tailoring, haircuts, dyeing, etc.);

- Creating sources of goods to contribute to export through internal trade exchange and cooperative societies with fraternal countries.

2. In the district:

It is necessary to form and maintain a management board for cooperative wholesale and retail cooperatives in each district to closely monitor and assist cooperative wholesale and retail cooperatives in communes in all aspects; at the same time, it is necessary to develop organizations conducting business with goods outside the plan (independent economic accounting) under the management board for cooperative wholesale and retail cooperatives in the district to promote the sale of goods that the district trading company only deals with to a limited extent such as fruits, freshwater fish, scrap materials, by-products, or does not deal with at all such as rattan products, stone products, betel nuts, areca nuts, shells, etc., aiming to contribute effectively to local production and living conditions and continuously expand organized markets.

While waiting for the Ministry and the Management Board for Cooperative Wholesale and Retail Cooperatives to study restructuring the cooperative trade sector into a business system from grassroots to central level with full collective economic characteristics, issues related to staffing, salary funds, and operating expenses of organizations under the cooperative trade sector in districts will still be handled as before, specifically:

- Where an organization conducting business with goods outside the plan has been established in the district directly managed by the Management Board for Cooperative Wholesale and Retail Cooperatives in the district, the costs of the board (including salaries and allowances for board staff) will be covered by two sources of operating funds: administrative funds provided by the Provincial People's Committee or District People's Committee and operating funds contributed by subordinate business organizations.

- Where private enterprise activities are strongly developed and profitable, the costs of the board will be covered by extra-plan business operating funds.

- Where conditions have not yet allowed the establishment of a cooperative wholesale and retail district business organization outside the plan, the operating costs of the board will be covered by administrative funds of the province or district.

- As for staffing and salary funds of direct subordinate business organizations of the cooperative wholesale and retail district, they will still be within the staffing and salary fund of the district trade sector that the Trade Department has or will decentralize to the District People's Committee for management.

Currently, organizing commodity circulation on the district territory generally and establishing a district trading company to conduct comprehensive buying and selling operations specifically is still new, so each Trade Department needs to study and thoroughly understand the contents of this Circular to draft a detailed implementation plan and guide the execution of this work in all districts in 1980; at the same time, accelerate the consolidation of provincial companies according to the guidance of the Ministry in Circulars No. 491/NT dated August 16, 1978, and No. 2/NT dated February 7, 1979.

During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties, the Departments should promptly report them to the Ministry for resolution.

This Circular shall be disseminated to all internal trade establishments in the district.