Official proposes ban on warm beer in Vietnam
But drinkers say they prefer imbibing away from air-conditioned establishments
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Your support makes all the difference.A ministry official in Vietnam is trying to outlaw the sale of beer in bars with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius in a bid to "protect consumers".
Nguyen Phu Cuong, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, drafted the regulation on Wednesday, which if imposed would hit the country's popular beer parlours hard.
Many Vietnamese drinkers think the move shows how out of touch the ministry is with the outdoor bar scene.
"The rules are not realistic," 55-year-old engineer Nguyen Van Dan told AP. "They just can't force us to drink beer in air-conditioned rooms."
Another drinker Tran Ngoc Son, 51, added that drinking beer in outdoors restaurants was just the "culture" in Vietnam.
"We just enjoy our beer at outdoors parlors much better than in air-conditioned places," he added over a beer and beef with peanuts. "We don't need the government to take care for our health."
Vietnam has the most beer drinkers per capita in Southeast Asia, consuming 3 billion litres of the stuff last year.
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