Vietnam province asks locals to drink Saigon Beer via public loudspeakers

An ad of Saigon Beer is seen in Ha Tinh Province, located in north-central Vietnam

Ha Tinh authorities have issued many fiats requesting public servants, state offices, businesses and consumers to drink Saigon Beer made by the Saigon Beer-Ha Tinh brewery, and beverage shops in the province are also asked to persuade their patrons to only use the domestically-made alcoholic drink.

In Ho Do Commune of Loc Ha District, locals are even reminded of the province-backed policy to drink Saigon Beer twice a week via speeches broadcast through the commune-wide public loudspeaker system.

Le Doan Lich, an official in charge of cultural activities in Ho Do, said such broadcasting is done as requested by the administrations of the province and district.

“We have to let people know of the policy to drink Saigon Beer to increase Ha Tinh’s budget,” he explained.

It has been revealed that the Ha Tinh administration wants to hike sales for the Saigon Beer-Ha Tinh brewery as much as possible to collect bigger tax revenue from the company.

All of the beverage stores in the commune have signed written commitments to persuade customers to use the domestically-made beer, Lich divulged.

“Besides spreading the policy via the public loudspeakers, we have also organized musical shows to encourage the consumption of Saigon Beer,” he proudly said.

Songs that hail the benefit of downing those drinks made by the Saigon Beer-Ha Tinh brewery are sung during such activities.

The administrations of other communes in Loc Ha District have also received promotional discs to play on the public loudspeaker system to urge consumers to drink Saigon Beer.

“We have never seen any policy that is so widely and intensively popularized than this,” locals said.

Around 70 to 80 of the beverage shops in Loc Ha District are now selling Saigon Beer, following repeated encouragement by local authorities.

“We have asked beverage sellers to promise to persuade clients to use Saigon Beer, and sent forces to oversee their commitment fulfillment,” Nguyen Cong Tuong Lam, an official of the district’s economics bureau, said.

The Ha Tinh administration made national headlines earlier this month after it warned seven officials of the provincial education department for not drinking Saigon Beer in their party.

The administration then asked the education department to take disciplinary action against these officials.

The department eventually held a meeting to reprimand them and asked them to write self-criticism reports for their “wrongdoing.”

On September 1, Le Minh Dao, head of the province’s secretariat, also shocked the public by sending an urgent dispatch only to ask the top officials of the provincial departments, agencies and other organizations to attend a Saigon Beer festival.

The provincial administration insisted that all recipients of the document “come to the festival on time” to show their love for Vietnamese-made goods.