Following the recent announcement of a national policy to promote the distribution of locally produced goods in markets, North Hamgyong Province’s party committee plans to “incentivize” merchants who sell locally made goods by lowering their market fees, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Monday that the provincial party committee had issued an order to get domestic goods moving in the province’s markets following a party order to “localize” the commercial sector. He said the committee was discussing substantive measures to make the order a reality.
According to the source, the provincial party committee issued the order, stressing that it needed to begin achieving the party’s localization policy in the commercial sector when it remains unknown when the border – closed due to COVID-19 – will reopen.
In fact, the provincial party has crafted a plan to realize the localization policy by joining hands with commercial officials and market management offices in the provincial capital of Chongjin to fill the city’s markets with domestically produced goods and reduce the market fees of participating stall merchants by half.
The source said the authorities were informing merchants at Chongjin’s markets of the provincial party’s decision, stressing that by filling their stalls with domestically produced industrial goods and foodstuffs they can save on market fees and “help the nation.”
Market management offices, for their part, are promoting the policy, saying that since the borders “could remain closed forever,” and with smuggling unable to resume, merchants should quickly accept the party’s localization policy. They say the wise thing is to secure domestic goods to sell so they can get out of their “current troubles.”
Locals, however, are reportedly less than enthusiastic about the plans.
“Locals are openly calling the plan contemptible,” said the source. “Locals have been relying on Chinese-made goods since the time of the Arduous March and have gotten used to foreign goods for over 20 years. They say nobody will buy poor-quality domestic goods.”
Moreover, locals doubt whether the country can produce enough goods to satisfy market demand, regardless of what the authorities say about circulating domestic products in line with new party policy. The source said people are saying the state has no interest in what people want or in how to improve their lives.
In fact, many people are reportedly in a state of despair. They ask why the authorities must drag domestic goods into the markets when they should be sold only in state shops, and say that dumping locally made goods “that won’t sell” on merchants and telling them to sell them when times are already difficult amounts to “telling them to go die.” They say that if the authorities pressure them like this, life will grow even more difficult.
The source further said that even the market management offices tasked with promoting the plan to merchants are sitting quietly, unable to force the scheme upon the sellers. This is because they know the plan will run into difficulties if merchants are forced into it, he added.
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