Electronics prices expected to fall

Hanoi (VNA) - The prices of consumer electronics will continue to fall in 2009,
predict electronics retailers, with a new economic partnership agreement singed with
Japan last week likely to accelerate the decline.

Under the agreement, import duties on consumer electronics from Japan will be
reduced over the next five-to-10 years, with the first reduction coming in the
middle of 2009.

The Director of Sony Electronics Vietnam, Kimihiro Itokicho, said Sony televisions,
laptops and digital cameras imported directly from Japan would see taxes fall by
2.5 percent to 4.5 percent.

Meanwhile, HCM City retailers were saying that consumer electronics prices
were already falling as part of an overall market trend.

Most made-in-Japan products in Vietnam were imported from a third country and
would not be affected by the new agreement. Only 1 percent of these were imported
directly from Japan , said Nguyen Minh Thu of the Thien Hoa Electronics Supermarket
in HCM City .

The new agreement itself would not have a big impact on the price of electronic
products on the domestic market, Thu said.

Le Quang Vu, Director of the Media Mart in Hanoi , agreed, saying that prices had
stabilised after falling in November. During that month, he said, the price of a
flat screen television had dropped by about 40 percent.-
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