Southern Binh Duong province’s policy of developing supporting industry has contributed to increasing the locality’s trade surplus in the first seven months of this year to nearly 1.5 billion USD, according to the provincial Department of Planning and Investment.

The department’s statistics showed almost half of new investment projects in the locality in the January-July period were in the supporting industry. As a result, the local content rate in the textile-garment and footwear has risen to 30-40 percent.

Foreign direct investment in Binh Duong totaled 1 billion USD so far, 400 million USD of which was poured into 83 new projects and the rest was added to 69 existing ones.

According to Lee Kap Soo, KyungBang Vietnam General Director, Vietnam is a potential market of materials for the textile industry, particularly in the context of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. For that reason, KyungBang group has poured an additional 54 million USD in its 40 million USD factory in Binh Duong to raise its production capacity of cotton yarn serving local textile and garment makers.

Vo Van Cu, Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade said many local enterprises shifted to domestic supply of materials, thus easing dependence on imports and increasing export surplus.

Binh Duong posted over 8 billion USD in export turnover so far this year, up 13.3 percent against the same period last year. Of the figure, the textile industry accounted for over 1 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of over 20 percent, while the footwear sector brought home 648 million USD, 18 percent higher than that recorded a year earlier.
Binh Duong, together with nearby Ho Chi Minh City, and Dong Nai, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, and Tien Giang provinces, forms the southern key economic region.

Aiming for sustainable industrial development goals, the province has tried to encourage investment in high-tech and supporting industries, projects using fewer labourers and those do not cause negative impacts on the environment.-VNA