Workers at a garment factory (Photo: VNA) Vietnamese enterprises have a big opportunity to enter the global value chain with several investors entering the country, Nguyen Mai, Chairman of Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises said.
Mai told the conference on connecting supply chain for support products held in Hanoi on October 29 that several international big groups such as Samsung, Intel, LG, Canon and Microsoft – Nokia expected to see Vietnamese companies joining their production chain and becoming their vendors.
For example, Samsung Electronics Vietnam wanted to cooperate with local firms to provide spare parts for their production.
"Demand for support industry development in Vietnam has been big as FDI inflows into the country has been on the rise," he said.
Statistics from the Foreign Investment Agency showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) worth 19.2 billion USD poured into Vietnam in the first 10 months of the year, posting year-on-year 40 percent increase.
He forecast that a new wave of high quality FDI inflow would come into Vietnam from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), especially from the United States after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) takes effects.
He asked Vietnamese companies to be confident while investing in modern technologies and taking advantage of the government's preferential policies.
Truong Thanh Hoai, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Heavy Industry Department, said the ministry has completed a draft decree on supporting industry development which they will be submitting to the government for consideration. The decree is expected to issue in the middle of next month.
He said the most difficulties for Vietnamese businesses in cooperation with global groups in the support industry was with regard to limited capacity and technology with low competitiveness and dependency on imported material.
Most of the domestic firms have produced simple products with low technology while big groups required three criteria of stable quantity, on-time delivery and suitable prices to join into their production chain.
Sharing the ideas, Luu Hoang Long, Chairman of the Vietnam Electronics Industries Association said Vietnam's electronics industry has low added value despite increasing export turnover in the past few years.
The sector's exports have surpassed that of crude oil since 2012, becoming Vietnam's key export staples.
"The electronics sector has largely depended on contributions from FDI enterprises," Long said, adding that the firms accounted for over 80 percent of local market and 90 percent of export turnover, though the number of the companies was one-third of the total.
He suggested that Vietnam should increase supply of spare parts for FDI producers, thus increasing added value and GDP.
The government should create a consumption market for local support industry producers. The ministry should clarify on the list of support industry products which Vietnamese businesses could have advantages for development and provide them with support policies.-VNA
