Vietnam to have independent gold testing firm

Vice chairman of VGTA Dinh Nho Bang Vietnam Gold Traders Association (VGTA) is planning to establish an independent gold testing enterprise to prevent traders from cheating clients with sub-quality products. The Daily talks with Dinh Nho Bang, vice chairman of the association, about the project. The Saigon Times Daily: Many participants at the VGTA annual meeting in the southern region stressed the need to establish a gold, silver and gemstone testing center which would set up quality standards for jewelry. Dinh Nho Bang: I think such a center is necessary as it would help supervise the quality of jewelry products in the country. In fact, many clients are buying gold at lower purity or weight than they think. This would never happen if we can put a quality stamp on gold products. There are many gold testing centers in the country under Saigon Jewelry Holding Co. (SJC) or Sacombank Jewelry Co. (SBJ) but the enterprises usually evaluate their own products only. So, we plan to establish a jewelry evaluation center. As the association is not legally able to establish the center, we will cooperate with some gold enterprises to set it up under the Law of Enterprises. The enterprise would help VGTA members check gold quality and issue quality stamps on the products. But VGTA has only over 100 member enterprises while there are up to 7,000 enterprises outside the association. Can the company check the quality of all jewelry products on the market? - We are considering that issue as the independent gold testing enterprise would at first serve VGTA member enterprises only. But afterwards as an independent service, we would provide testing services for other gold firms so as they could boost their prestige and product quality. The ultimate goal of the association would be to help buyers choose products with the quality stamp so they can easily trade the gold they buy anywhere - as opposed to the current practice where they can only sell gold back to the store they bought it from. The jewelry market in Vietnam is rather large; can the enterprise test all jewelry products on the market? - It won’t be easy. In my opinion, the best way is for gold traders to give guarantees on their product quality to the independent gold evaluating enterprise and assign the company to stamp the product. If a gold trader is found cheating clients or if consumers complain about quality, the testing enterprise would cancel that contract. Consumers would not trust products without the quality stamp and dishonest traders would suffer from loss of prestige, brand reputation and business. We have mentioned jewelry products on the local market, but how about testing products for export? And when would the enterprise start operating? - As I have said, we would ask that gold traders guarantee the quality of gold, jewelry and gemstones. Gold trading or exporting would go smoothly with the quality certification stamps given by the independent testing enterprise. I think that establishment of the enterprise would help Vietnam better jewelry exports as many countries currently don’t trust the quality of Vietnamese gold products, which creates some difficulties for exporters. Under our scheme, we have announced the project in the annual meeting resolutions and will set up the enterprise next year with two testing centers in HCMC and Hanoi. Reported by Thanh Thuong