Young people fill large, newly built beer halls for drinks after a long day. Foreigners are launching small businesses and making their own beer in the country. Foreign companies from Heineken to Sapporo hope the Vietnamese market will drive their sales growth. At the same time, some investors are looking for the chance to buy Sabeco, Vietnam’s top beer producer.

Beer seems to be popular nationwide, but the government is getting worried. Now government officials are considering ways to restrict advertising for beer.

The Ministry of Health has proposed a measure that would limit ads for beer, which it fears could soon become a threat to public health. The rules would ban roadside signs for beer, ads in films, on shows with children, and on social media.

Vietnam already bans ads for hard alcohol. But in countries that ban ads for beer and drinks known as spirits, drinking is 11 percent lower than in countries that mainly focus on hard alcohol. That information comes from Tran Thi Trang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s legislation department.

"Every year, the alcohol companies spend trillions of dong on advertising and marketing,” she was reported as saying. She added that beer manufacturers would not spend so much money if the ads truly failed to bring people to their products. Her comments appeared on the government’s news website.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”