Industry expands in HCM City
The HCM City industrial development index last year saw higher growth than in previous years, especially by four key industries, with the ratio of processing and manufacturing sectors increasing and labour-intensive and polluting industries decreasing.
According to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, the industry development index rose 7.9% last year compared to 7% in 2014.
The processing and manufacturing sectors grew 8%, spearheading the rise in the index.
It enabled the creation of 2% more new jobs compared with 2014.
The number of new businesses rose by 29% while closures fell by 3.9%.
Last year the share of the city's four key industries in overall manufacturing output increased marginally to 60%.
Of this, engineering and manufacturing accounted for 20.4% as it used plenty of modern and cutting-edge technologies in production. Local producers were able to make many items that could replace imports and reduce prices by 30-50%.
Electronics and IT accounted for just 4.1% of the production but grew by a high 11%.
Chemicals, rubber and plastics changed its development trend by becoming more environment-friendly. The industry accounted for 18.6% of manufacturing output and grew by 1.9%. Products like automobile and motorbike tyres and tubes were exported to many foreign markets.
The food and beverages industry, the last of the four, focused on quality as it accounted for nearly 17% of total industrial value and achieved growth of 11.1%.
Two other strong, traditional industries, footwear and textile and garments, each continued to account for 17.7% of manufacturing value. The former grew by 4.6% and the latter by 8.2%.
The department also pointed out many shortcomings faced by the manufacturing sector.
"Industrial production growth is below potential," a department spokesperson was quoted as saying by Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper.
The quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of the industrial sector improved, but not strongly enough, he said. It was changing rapidly towards the right mix, but value-addition and the ratio of processing, which is not labour-intensive or polluting, remain low, he admitted.
This year the city again targets 7% growth overall for industry, and 7.2% for the four key industries, he said.
To achieve the targets, the department would continue support efforts to reduce the ratio of labour-intensive and polluting industries and promote knowledge-based, high-tech, energy-saving and environment-friendly industries, he said.
The four key industries and supporting industries would get assistance in terms of funding and training human resources.