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Henig:  Kiên Giang aims to improve industrial production value by 8%

January, 11/2023 - 08:43

The industrial production value of Kiên Giang Province is more than VNĐ44.6 trillion last year, reaching 105.3 per cent of the plan, up 13.7 per cent compared to 2021.

KIÊN GIANG — The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Kiên Giang strives for industrial production value to reach more than VNĐ48.18 trillion (US$2.04 billion) this year, a year-on-year increase of 8 per cent.

The industrial production value of Kiên Giang Province was more than VNĐ44.6 trillion last year, reaching 105.3 per cent of the plan, up 13.7 per cent compared to 2021.

Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Trương Văn Minh said that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, this had been the first year that the province's industrial growth reached double digits.

It showed that the process of recovering production and business of industrial production facilities in the area has had many positive changes and strong development, he said.

Among them, the processing and manufacturing industry was the main growth driver of the whole industry, accounting for 95.3 per cent of the total structure of industrial production value of the province.

Accordingly, most industrial products have positive growth. Leather shoes, bricks of all kinds, packaging, beer, frozen seafood, and stone mining have a growth rate of over 13 per cent compared to 2021.

This result is due to the fact that the supply chain of goods has been restored after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the purchasing power increased sharply again.

Enterprises have been proactive and have appropriate business solutions, and timely implementation of supply contracts, which have contributed to the overall growth of the whole industry in the province last year.

The vice chairman of the provincial people's committee Lê Quốc Anh said that the province had stepped up the activities of the province's steering group on restoring industrial production to synchronously and effectively deploy solutions to restore industrial production to support enterprises to accelerate the recovery and development of production and business activities.

The province would strengthen support for investors and businesses to soon complete and put into operation investment projects to enhance the capacity of the industry in the new year, especially key investment projects.

— VNS   LINK

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Henig:  The right direction for Lam Dong to break through into the global supply chain

08:58 | 10/01/2023

(VEN) - Lam Dong Province has many breakthrough solutions to develop comprehensive, sustainable and modern agriculture. Vietnam Economic News’ Diep Hien spoke with Dr. Pham S, Vice Chair of Lam Dong Province People's Committee about this issue.

In 2022, Vietnam's economy faced many challenges but the agricultural sector in Vietnam in general and Lam Dong Province in particular still had many positive signs. To achieve this result, what solutions have been implemented?

Having developed hi-tech agriculture since 2004, Lam Dong Province always issues thematic resolutions on hi-tech agriculture. It provides great orientations for farmers and businesses with basic solutions, including synchronously implementing breakthrough solutions close to the practical situation such as high-tech agricultural production planning; always investing intensively in the selection and breeding of crops and animals for high productivity and quality; and scientific and technological research and transfer.

Branding development has always been interested in the province and has organized the implementation of hundreds of research topics and projects for hi-tech agriculture; a great success in practice is that enterprises have invested in, selected technology and equipment suitable for each ecological sub-region and plant and livestock subjects, and developed farming processes according to standards and regulations on hi-tech agricultural production.

In addition, the province has drastically directed the application of mechanization and automation in the entire production process, especially the care and harvesting stages to reduce production costs. At the same time, in the process of organizing production, Lam Dong Province always has a relatively close forecast to the current international integration conditions, on the basis of which it finds strengths to pave the way for the agricultural sector to take off and integrate into international economic communities.

As a result, by the end of 2022, the province was estimated to reach over 65,300 hectares of production meeting the criteria of high-tech production, accounting for 21.8 percent of the province's cultivated land area; the value of high-tech agricultural production reached an average of VND430 million/ha, accounting for over 40 percent of the total production value of the sector.

 Production value per unit of cultivated vegetable area using smart technology is over VND2 billion/ha/year; flower production using IoT technology is from VND3-8 billion/ha/year. In particular, so far, the province has built a brand and established intellectual property rights of 31 brands for typical products of the province, including Da Lat Vegetables, Dalat Flowers, B’Lao Tea, Di Linh Coffee, Arabica Langbiang Coffee, Da Lat Cold Water Fish, and Bao Loc Silk, among others.

In the process of developing high-tech agriculture, what difficulties has Lam Dong encountered and how has the province overcome them?

Despite many innovations, Lam Dong Province is still facing basic difficulties such as agricultural production still lacking stability because the price of materials in recent years has always increased higher than the price of agricultural products. And the province has a solution to produce organic fertilizers, apply mechanization to reduce living labor in order to reduce production costs. In addition, due to the rapid urbanization process, the province has focused on science and technology as the foundation throughout the production process.

In addition, when developing high-tech agriculture, the nuclear factor, the core is enterprises and cooperatives. However, both of these forces are still slow to develop, not commensurate with their potential; production is not yet tied to the market... Therefore, the province has reviewed to direct the development of a practical and synchronous agricultural cooperative.

Another difficulty is that attracting enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas is still limited; most enterprises have difficulties in production public land fund when making investment projects; infrastructure for concentrated production planning areas and industrial parks has not been invested synchronously. Therefore, the province is oriented with a long-term vision of agricultural product processing industrial park.

What mechanisms and policies do localities have to attract foreign investors as well as expand international cooperation? Could you share your experience in multinational agricultural development?

In the current and future periods, Vietnam is fully implementing and will implement its commitments to free trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA); Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), joining the ASEAN community, and implementing WTO regulations. Therefore, Lam Dong Province always has appropriate policies to attract foreign investment, international cooperation and strategic investors; improve the level of state management, access to scientific and technological knowledge and corporate governance to grasp international regulations.

Firstly, mastering all provincial branches of international cooperation is a requirement for integration; providing authentic data on local natural conditions, potentials and different policies; supporting policies on land, trade promotion and labor force training to meet investor requirements; and at the same time committing to donors on accessibility and effective capital implementation for community development.

Secondly, improving training on knowledge of international integration through continuing to promote economic restructuring, especially restructuring of the agricultural sector in association with attracting foreign investment.

Thirdly, reviewing, adjusting and supplementing the master plan of the agricultural sector and specialized plans in the direction of a multidisciplinary approach.

Fourthly, in the immediate future, focusing on building hi-tech agricultural zones; strongly developing hi-tech agricultural areas; accelerating the project of post-harvest centers and flower trading centers with the participation of Japanese enterprises and a number of advanced foreign enterprises.

Finally, strengthening state management of agriculture, especially quality management of agricultural materials, quality management of agricultural products, ensuring food safety and hygiene, promoting the application of production standards such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP, HACCP, and ORGANIC.

In the upcoming plan, in order to continue attracting foreign investment in hi-tech agriculture, the province has planned to focus on training human resources in parallel with training leading experts and training good managers of the agricultural sector; developing new cooperative models and production connectivity among farmers, cooperatives and enterprises, forming safe agricultural production and supply chains with the participation of FDI enterprises

Attracting FDI projects to develop the potential; attracting official development assistance (ODA) to invest in equipment and technology, improving the level of corporate governance in order to improve labor productivity, and improving product quality and enterprise competitiveness; organizing trade promotion missions in markets with potential advantages to expand agricultural export markets; proactively selecting and applying advanced technologies of the world in a shortcut manner to take the lead for the comprehensive, modern, sustainable development of Lam Dong’s agricultural in order to become one of the agricultural centers in Southeast Asia.

Diep Hien  LINK

Henig:  IMF commends Việt Nam’s macro-economic stabilisation policies

January, 10/2023

The IMF will always accompany Việt Nam in post-COVID-19 recovery and development, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IFM) Antoinette Sayeh pledged, expressing her hope for stronger cooperation with Vietnamese agencies, particularly the Economic Commission.

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IFM) Antoinette Sayeh has lauded Việt Nam for its high economic growth and controlled inflation over the past years, despite global uncertainties.

At a meeting with the head of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission, Trần Tuấn Anh, in Hà Nội on Monday, Sayeh spoke highly of guidelines and policies adopted by the Vietnamese Party and State to stabilise the macroeconomy and reform the growth model in response to climate change.

The IMF would always accompany Việt Nam in post-COVID-19 recovery and development, she pledged, expressing her hope for stronger cooperation with Vietnamese agencies, particularly the Economic Commission.

For his part, Anh said Vietnamese Party and State leaders always attached importance and listened to consultations and recommendations of the IMF, which had helped the country devise more effective macro-economic, fiscal and monetary policies.

He highlighted the IMF’s regular, quality reports on Việt Nam’s macro economy and thanked the fund for its support in personnel training.

Briefing the IMF delegation on Việt Nam’s macro-economic situation in 2019-22, lessons drawn from economic management, and development orientations and policies in the time ahead, the official called for more support from the fund.

VNS   LINK

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Henig:  HCM City’s industry and trade sector aims at new heights

January, 10/2023

The city’s industry and trade sector will deploy a number of measures to enable it to always stay ahead of trends, helping the city maintain its role as the economic locomotive and take the lead in innovation in the country, according to the city Department of Industry and Trade.

HCM CITY — The city’s industry and trade sector will deploy a number of measures to enable it to always stay ahead of trends, helping the city maintain its role as the economic locomotive and take the lead in innovation in the country, according to the city Department of Industry and Trade.

The sector also targets 7.5 per cent industrial growth, 12 per cent growth in retail sales of goods and services and a 10 per cent increase in foreign trade (excluding crude oil) this year.

According to a report at a meeting held on January 9 in HCM City to review industrial production and trade in 2022 and set tasks for this year, the sector recorded a strong recovery last year, with the index of industrial production up by 13.9 per cent, total retail sales of goods and services rising by 30.5 per cent to nearly VNĐ1.09 quadrillion (US$46.5 billion), and total export turnover of city-based enterprises up 5.1 per cent to $47.18 billion.

Bùi Tá Hoàng Vũ, the department’s director, said businesses would continue to face difficulties this year such as lower demand in the country’s key export markets, stricter access to bank loans, raising input costs, unstable global supply chain, high logistics costs and others.

In order to realise the goals set out for 2023, the department would focus on developing the high-tech industrial sector, supporting industries, and the four key industrial sectors comprehensively, he said.

It would pay greater attention to promoting key industrial products and those with potential in 2021-25 to foster development, and encourage and instruct enterprises to enhance digital transformation and green production.

It would step up export promotion to help firms expand markets, especially to countries with which Việt Nam has free trade agreements.

The department would also seek to boost the development of e-commerce to meet consumption trends, and develop the logistics sector into a key service sector.

Other plans included strengthening links between producers, distributors and retailers, bolstering connections between businesses and banks to make it easy for enterprises to access bank loans, and setting up a commodity exchange and large-scale supply and distribution chains with the participation of leading retailers and logistics firms, farms and enterprises, he said.

Speaking at the meeting, Võ Văn Hoan, deputy chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, appreciated the efforts made by the department and businesses last year.

Expecting businesses to continue to face difficulties this year, he asked the department to focus resources to understand the operational situation of enterprises so as to propose measures to help solve their difficulties (if any) in a timely manner.

He urged the department to implement efficiently the investment stimulus policy for the industrial sector and supporting industries and continue to foster trade cooperation with other cities and provinces to help firms expand consumption markets, ensure goods supply and demand and stable prices.

The city's industry and trade sector needed to improve its forecasting capacity to raise its management efficiency and better support the business community, he said.

Lý Kim Chi, chairwoman of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association, said the city needed to have support mechanisms and policies for developing cold storage and raw material areas to boost the development of the city's food processing industry in the 2021-2030 period.

She also proposed the city organise many programmes that promote goods made by the city-based businesses in other cities and provinces, and resume direct trade promotion programmes with the city’s key export markets to help businesses expand business opportunities.

— VNS   LINK