Ho Chi Minh City , the country’s largest economic hub, has pinpointed the development of supporting industries as top priority to speed up its industrialisation and modernisation process.

The city is now home to 10 industrial zones (IZs) covering an area of over 1,500ha. It plans to use 650ha of its land to build three IZs designed for supporting industry companies, including foreign direct investment firms that will support technology transfer and human resources training for the city.

Head of the management board of the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza) suggested selecting Hiep Phuoc and Le Minh Xuan 3 IZs in Nha Be and Binh Chanh districts to draw businesses in the field to serve engineering, electronics, and computing.

Particularly, the Vietnam-Japan technology park in Hiep Phuoc, which is expected to be put into operation in this October, will help promote links between Vietnamese and Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing to the city’s supporting industry development.

Director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade Le Van Khoa proposed the city draw up a legal resolution on developing SMEs in the field along with setting up a group of research on the local products that are competitive in the market.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is now developing a decree focusing on measures to support technology, production management and customer services in the field, which will be submitted to the Government in the fourth quarter of this year./.