HCM City to determine key exports
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Identifying HCM City’s typical export products
should not be based simply on their export volume or value or subjective
decisions, but on careful analysis, experts have said.
The city Department of Industry and Trade recently held a seminar to identify
the city’s top export products and collect opinions from experts, business
groups and enterprises for its Export Development Project in 2017-20 before
submitting to the People’s Committee for approval.
The project’s objectives are to forecast opportunities for and challenges to
exports, identify the most competitive export sectors and products, and propose
solutions and strategies for developing exports.
Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, the department’s deputy director, said the department is
working with the Institute of Public Policy - University of Economics HCM City
and experts from Fulbright University to develop the project.
The consulting team has used a variety of research methods to identify the
city’s top export products as well as used data from nearly 14,000 export
enterprises combined with surveys and interviews of some 200 enterprises in 14
sectors to determine the competitive advantages of and value addition in export
products, he said.
Hoa said the city has paid close attention to shifting its export structure,
reducing export of low added-value products and increasing export of highly
processed products and services with high added value, with programmes designed
to encourage the shift in recent years.
But the results have been below expectations, he admitted.
Analysing the city’s export structure in the 2008-15 period, Dinh Cong Khai,
director of the Institute of Public Policy, pointed out exports had mainly
grown in volume terms and followed the market, and lacked a strategic direction
for development.
The city’s production and exports are not very competitive, with the former
being mainly contract-based and not deeply participating in the global value
chain, he said.
As a result, the city’s export growth is fully dependent on global market
fluctuations, making it hard to implement strategies or programmes to shift
export structures, he said.
Besides, the city has not identified industries with high export growth
potential and competitive advantages based on scientific analysis or new
methods, and relies on the traditional approach based mainly on export value,
he said.
Programmes to support the shift in the export structure and develop exports are
not cohesive, making it difficult for stakeholders to implement them, he said.
To achieve the objectives of export restructuring, it is necessary to evaluate
the competitiveness of existing exports, delegates said.
Designating the major exports now as the key exports is easy, but their value
addition and comparative advantages would be low, they said.
On the contrary, sectors that currently do not export much but have high
potential would need investment and strategies to develop, they said.
Tran Viet Anh, deputy chairman of the HCM City Union of Business Associations
and chairman and general director of Nam Thai Son Company, said the city needs
to assess the competitive advantage of products through international export
fairs and exhibitions to identify key products.
Dr Tran Du Lich, a member of the Government’s economic advisory group, said the
city needs to change its mind about what are typical export products since even
its four key industry groups and nine service sectors need to be changed
because they may not be suitable in the current time.-VNS/VNA