Ho Chi Minh City encourages industrial production

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City enjoyed robust industrial growth in the first nine months of the year thanks to improvements in its business climate, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade (DoIT) said on October 11.

A report from the DoIT showed that many foreign direct (FDI) firms came to land investment in production, as well as industrial processing and manufacturing in the city during January-September.

The city’s index of industrial production (IIP) in the nine-month period surged 7.89 percent year-on-year, with industrial processing and manufacturing increasing 8.1 percent. Meanwhile, the four key sectors of mechanical engineering, electronics and IT, chemical-rubber-plastic, and food processing rose by a combined 8.39 percent.

Local enterprises said that as ministries and sectors have issued an array of policies to support domestic firms and automobile industry, the mechanical engineering industry experienced a sharp rise in production.

Meanwhile, the chemical-rubber-plastic sector expanded 3.63 percent and electronics shot up 18.28 percent.

According to experts, businesses operating in the four industrial sectors have made substantial improvements in their production capacity and quality of products for export. They have also paid due attention to domestic markets, offering excellent products that can compete with the imported varieties.

With a view to fulfilling the IIP target of 8-8.5 percent in 2018, Vice Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Phuong Dong said that the department is working to remove bottlenecks for local firms, supporting them to branch out market and trade promotion, as well as connecting the supply and demand of industrial and supporting industry products.

The city has carried out solutions towards implementing Decree No.111/2015/ND-CP on developing the supporting industry, aiming to locally supply 35 percent of spare parts for domestic automobile production.

To be more specific, the Ho Chi Minh City Centre of Support Industries Development is joining hands with competent branches and sectors to help local companies improve their competitive capacity and participate in global value chains.

Many businesses have invested heavily in advanced technologies, which allow them to create brilliant products with a competitive edge over imported options.

Furthermore, the city is evaluating the competitive capacity of its current export products, working to remove difficulties for key industrial exports. In the first nine months of the year, the export revenue of industrial products picked up 7.1 percent year-on-year to hit 17.47 billion USD. –VNA