Illustrative image (Source: VNA) The slowdown went against the rises in consumption (5 percent), production (5.4 percent), imports (4.3 percent), and exports (1.7 percent), recorded in the first half of this year, reported the association.
It added that sales of paper for printing newspapers dropped 46 percent year on year, while that of printing paper went down for the first time.
Meanwhile, sales of tissue paper still enjoyed high and stable growth at 16.5 percent, while its production rose 11 percent and imports increased 71 percent.
The VPPA attributed the rise to the improvement of people’s living standards and their higher requirements of high-quality tissues.
Many enterprises held that the domestic paper businesses are less competitive compared to foreign and FDI firms, forcing many domestic factories to operate under their capacity.
The association proposed that authorised agencies should design support policies for paper firms to assist them in capital and technology transfer and trade promotion in line with the Government’s Resolution 35/CP on supporting the paper sector’s growth to 2020.
The aid is expected to help the firms expand their market, improve products’ quality and access low-cost materials, thus re-gaining their market share amidst challenges from the current strong international integration, added the VPPA.-VNA
VNA
