The retailer community last week was stirred up by the news that a Vietnamese enterprise had acquired a famous foreign retail brand just after one month of negotiations.

While other regional countries have made big leaps in developing their retail industries, the achievements gained by Vietnam have been modest in the last 10 years since Vietnam joined the WTO.

AVR has asked the government to establish a retail conglomerate from four big retail chains, Saigon Co-op, Phu Thai Group, Satra and Hapro, to compete with foreign retailers flocking to Vietnam.