The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has attained an industrial production value of nearly 27.7 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD), representing a 7.9 percent year-on-year escalation, said the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.

Of the industrial sectors, the processing industry grew by 8.4 percent while the electricity and water distribution industry posted growth of 23.7 percent.

The city’s production industry focuses on farm produce and aquaculture processing, garments, beverage production, wood processing and pharmaceuticals.

Bui Ngoc Vy, vice director of the municipal department, underscored that the industrial production rise in the city was spurred by high-quality products, market expansion and new project implementation.

As many as four new projects were lured to the city in the first four months of this year. Currently, the city is home to 218 valid projects with the total registered capital of 2 billion USD.

However, numerous challenges still exist for local businesses such as price competitiveness and trade tariffs, which hurt aquaculture and agriculture exports at the outset of the year.

In a bid to shoot up the competitiveness of domestic and export commodities, the city is proactively seeking new markets as well as pumping additional capital for enterprises to renovate technology, increase product quality and reduce prices.-VNA