Chen specializes in electrical appliances at a wholesale market in Mong Cai since 2000. He imported most of the electrical appliances from his relatives’ factories in Yiwu and his annual turnover in Vietnam can reach up to 10 million Yuan. He signed a contract valued 700 thousand Yuan in May with a Vietnamese buyer. But according to the agreement, they have to clear the payment in Dong which means a loss of 200 thousand Yuan only in one month.
Ms. Ruan, a Vietnamese lives in Hangzhou with his Taiwanese husband, runs a shopping mall in Mong Cai in which 1/3 of the products sold are from Yiwu market. They used to source 2 million Yuan’s goods from Yiwu market every month. But with the devaluation of Dong, Vietnamese begin to save expenses and the sales of non-daily necessities were inevitably affected. The sales volume in the past two months has reduced to half of the usual figure.
Yiwu opened a daily shuttle bus in 2004 that links Yiwu with Dongxing-a city on the border of China and Vietnam. The bus line operator complained to us that there are at least 6 vietnamese come to Yiwu to purchase small commodities every week, but due to the fluctuation of Vietnam economy, the passengers reduced to 2 Vietnamese at most a week.
