A Hyundai assembly plant in Ninh Binh province. (Photo: VNA) Pham Thanh Tung, a representative from the Industry Agency, Ministry ofIndustry and Trade, remarked that supporting industries were composed of roughly5,000 firms in 2021, which operate predominantly in textile, footwear andmechanical engineering sub-industries.
About 88% of the firms are small- and medium-sized. The proportion of thoseengaging in high value-added segments was relatively low, with 19% for textilesand 33% for electronics.
Around 20% have been certified as ISO 9000 compliant and 9% as ISO 14000compliant. One-fifth claimed to follow 5S Principle, whereas the figures forother principles, including Lean and 6-Sigma, stood at roughly 2%.
Over 30% said they employ manually-operated equipment, 50% use semi-automatic,10% operate automatically and the rest engage robots to run their productionlines.
"Those figures indicate that firms in supporting industries are ofrelatively low ability in terms of management and technology," he said.
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry was concerned thatdomestically-manufactured components cater for a small proportion of industrialproduction. In the home electronics industry, the figures are just roughly 30%.
The same goes for the automobile industry, which has 84 domestic tier-1 and 145tier-2, 3 component suppliers against 20 auto manufacturers. Those figures palein comparison with those in Thailand, which has 690 domestic tier-1 and 1,700tier-2, 3 suppliers against 16 auto manufacturers.
The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association remarked that every automobileassembled in Vietnam is composed of around 30,000 components, but 80% of whichcome from abroad.
Remarkably, the country has to import between 35 billion USD to 50 billion USDof auto components annually.
According to a survey by the General Statistics Office, firms in supportingindustries admitted having no advantages in terms of adaptability, R&D,managerial systems and operational strategy.
However, when asked about which policies they were expecting from theGovernment, they pointed to tax cuts and administrative supports, instead offavourable policies that would help them improve the above-mentioned factors.
Such a disparity between what they need and what they want has posed a serious challengeto policy formulation and implementation. Meanwhile, the Government's supportprogrammes were accessible to just around 17% of the firms, a relativelylimited range.
Choi Kyung-soo, Deputy Director of the Procurement Centre, Samsung Vietnam,asserted that his corporation is sparing no effort to build an ecosystem forsupporting industries in Vietnam.
To that end, Samsung has cooperated closely with Vietnamese authorities invarious programmes to boost the industries' growth. The corporation hasdispatched its specialists to domestic firms to help the firms with trainingand give them advice on competitiveness enhancement.
"With a business philosophy of co-prosperity, Samsung's support fordomestic firms will continue unabated in the future," he said.
He also said Samsung will continue to expand the cooperative programmes andsend out more specialists to improve the technological landscape of thecountry. Samsung hopes that domestic firms would avail of the support toimprove their operation.
Do Thi Thuy Huong, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for SupportingIndustries, asserted that it does not matter how large the proportion ofdomestically-manufactured components are used in industrial production, but howmuch technological values they add to value chains.
"Adding high technological values to their products is what firms shouldaim for," she said./.
VNA
