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Laos and Cambodia are particularly important for Vietnam as they are situated on the East-West corridor that links many ASEAN countries. A Vietnamese saying has it that Far Relatives are not Comparable with Near Neighbours'. Laos and Cambodia are Vietnam's near neighbours, potential markets that can be further developed in the near future. This is why organisers of the initiative entitled "Vietnam's high-quality consumer goods" have chosen the two countries as the first markets in which to set up a marketing fair for 'Made in Vietnam' goods.

VIETNAM-CAMBODIA: SHOPPING AT BORDER MARKETS

Facelift at Xuan To Market

Boarding a high-quality, non-stop coach to Long Xuyen from the Mien Tay Terminal in Ho Chi Minh City, I was eager to visit border markets the next morning in An Giang, a southern Vietnamese province along the border with Cambodia.

An Giang is one of the provinces in Vietnam with numerous border gates into Cambodia. Apart from the international border gates of Tinh Bien and Vinh Xuong, there are secondary gates licensed by the government for border trade such as Khanh Binh (Long Binh commune, An Phu district), Vinh Hoi Dong and Dong Duc (Vinh Hoi Dong commune, An Phu district).

An Giang's largest border market is situated in an economic zone by the Tinh Bien Border Gate, adjacent to Cambodia's Ta Keo province. The economic zone was inaugurated two years ago with an investment capital of some VND17 billion. The Tinh Bien market is the new incarnation of the smaller Xuan To market, which had just 20 fabric traders. According to Dao Van Be, head of the management board of Tinh Bien Market, the market now has more than 350 traders with a wide range of commodities.

"Up to 90 percent of goods for sale at Tinh Bien market are imported from Cambodia but are made in Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and China. The remaining 10 percent are domestically made goods, mostly foodstuffs and consumer goods," said Be.

He added that during the pilgrimage season in the third and fourth months of the lunar calendar, the market's parking lot is crowded with all kinds of vehicles from dawn to dusk. Goods sold like hotcakes, especially imported fabrics. Most shoppers at Tinh Bien market are tourists who come to visit pagodas and beautiful locations such as Sam Mountain, Cam Mountain and Ba Chua Xu (Xu Goddess) Temple. During the peak season, the market receives up to 2,000 shoppers a day.

Shopping at Goi Markets in Phnom Penh

From the Tinh Bien Border Gate, Muoi, a duck egg trader, took me by motorcycle to Goi Ta Lap Market. On the way, she told me she had sold duck eggs for 10 years, buying them in Long Xuyen, Chau Doc and Can Tho and selling them in Cambodia. "I go to and from Cambodia a few times a day. It's a busy job, but I can earn my living with it," said Muoi.

It took half an hour to travel from the Tinh Bien Border Gate to Goi Ta Lap Market at the foot of a mountain in Ta Keo province, Cambodia. A small market with goods displayed randomly and a few customers, Goi Ta Lap has a large number of imported, inexpensive goods, like other border markets. A Thai-made children's jersey suit costs 11,000 Vietnamese dong, a Thai-made shirt sells for 17,000 dong, and a CD is priced at 10,000 dong. Many traders in the market can speak Vietnamese. In front of the market are some foreign exchange counters, with U.S. dollars, Vietnamese dong, Thai baht, Cambodian riel and Lao kip displayed in glass cupboards.

I also went to Bam-Bu Market on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. There are several Vietnamese expatriates living and trading there. The most impressive thing during my trip was the taxicab. The four-seater cab carried eight people - including a four-year-old child - to Bam-Bu Market. The taxi driver had to drive with one hand for over three hours because the front seats were filled with four people and there was no space for his other hand! Fortunately, the cab arrived at the market and we each had to pay 10,000 riel (approximately 40,000 dong).

There was little to say about Bam-Bu, except that there was a cart, owned by a Cambodia, selling Hanoi cha lua (pork or beef paste) in front of it. I had enough time to have a bowl of bun rieu (rice vermicelli soup with small pieces of crab meat and vegetable) and a glass of iced sweet soup, the flavour of which was like that at Ben Thanh Market back home in Ho Chi Minh City.

Back in Chau Doc in An Giang province in Vietnam, a motorbike taxi driver named Binh asked me whether I had visited Goi Ta Mau Market, telling me that "original electric and electronic appliances are very cheap there."

So off I went to the market. It is located in Vinh Nguon commune, about five kilometres from the centre of Chau Doc town. Crossing Vinh Nguon Bridge and turning right about a kilometre further, I arrived at the area where local residents kept motorbikes for those who visited the market. A middle-aged man asked us if we wanted a porter and he introduced Han, his 18-year-old daughter, a twelfth grader. He told us to pay Han 5,000 or 10,000 dong when we came back. We travelled along narrow paths amid rice fields to a wharf. A three-minute boat trip costing 2,500 dong each took us to Goi Ta Mau Market without any visa checks.

The market on stilts sells mainly secondhand appliances such as TVs, monitors, watches, cellphones, laptops and speakers. When I was looking at a Panasonic VCD component priced at 2.15 million dong, a trader told me that the so-called "deaf and dumb" product would be sold without a test. "Deaf and dumb" products are those which may not be fully working or are not popular and are usually sold wholesale at very low prices. Used LG air-cons were piled in front of houses for sale.

Talking to a woman wearing a great deal of jewelry at her shop - the biggest at the market - I learned that she had decided to follow her husband and go into business at the market long ago. All the appliances in her shop - monitors, laptops, speakers, players and mobile phones - were imported from Japan and South Korea. She also supplied products to some outlets in Chau Doc and Long Xuyen.

As I took a photograph of this shop while leaving, my camera was nearly seized by a shop assistant. Why were they worried if their business was aboveboard? I wondered.