Most Central American and Latin American countries have localised policies to regulate the proliferation of supermarket and hypermarket formats while in the South East Asian region, countries have resorted to different approaches to upgrade, integrate or convert the small shops to supermarket formats, according to the Icrier report released on Monday.
In Singapore, in 1970-80s government relegated wetmarkets, street-vendors to suburbs. However, today the government has reversed strategy to integrate small shops by upgrading and modernising them under the scheme ?cherish but upgrade and modernise?. In 2001, the government launched its 10-year Hawker Centres Upgrading Programme. Recently it has also launched Spring Singapore ? Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board, designed to promote modernization in small retail shops.
In China, the government has imposed zoning restriction on wetmarkets in inner cities, upgraded outdoor wetmarket to indoor clean market, tried implementing format change from market to supermarket and bulldozed informal wetmarkets. It has also executed the concept of rural supermarket, running chains of small dry good store in neighbourhood format. In Taiwan, the government is converting wetmarket into shopping emporiums on the ?Nanmen Model?. In Hong Kong, the government has decided to retain but modernise wetmarket by upgrading physical infrastructure and outsourcing management to private players.
Among the Central American and Latin American countries, Brazil has decentralised retail regulation to the municipal level wherein foreign and national chains negotiate with local governments on terms of entry. There are around 5,000 such municipalities in Brazil with widely varying regulations. Special tax regulations reduce tax burdens of traditional retailers. Similarly in Mexico, there are no national guidelines controlling the location of modern retailers or protecting small retailers. Instead the states control the regulatory frameworks in their jurisdiction. Additionally, the Federal Competition Commission regulates competition among formal sector but not between formal and informal retailers, which is managed by the municipalities or states. Resulting in local regulatory agencies wielding significant pressure on informal retail sector. In Chile and Argentina, around 16,000 and 64,000 small shops respectively faced closure since 1991 in the absence of protective policies.
