Industry and trade branch make an important contribution to provincial growth

 That is the assessment of Mai Hùng Dũng, Member of Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee, at the conference on summarizing provincial industry and trade sector in 2019.

Leaders of Department of Industry and Trade learn about the operation of CNC Company (Thuan An Town).

To actively remove difficulties and assist businesses

According to Department of Industry and Trade, the province's industrial production activities in 2019 continued to grow steadily. Namely, the number of orders signed by businesses in the province increased by 5-10%; the index of industrial production (IIP) is estimated to increase by 9.86%, of which the mining industry increased by 12.2%, the processing and manufacturing industry increased by 9.99%, production and distribution of electricity, gas, hot water, steam, and air condition increased by 120.18%, water supply, sewerage and waste management activities increased by 9.86% over the previous year.

In 2019, this branch advised Provincial People's Committee to issue a decision on the establishment of Thanh An, Tan Thanh and An Lap industrial clusters; submit to Provincial People's Committee for establishing Phuoc Hoa, Tam Lap 3 and 4 industrial clusters; at the same time, carried out inspection and pre-acceptance test of infrastructure of 5 industrial clusters in the province. Currently, the province has 10 industrial clusters in operation with an area of 648.29 hectares. The average occupancy rate of these industrial clusters is about 67.4%.

Regarding assisting businesses to overcome difficulties, the branch conducted two surveys to understand production and business activities, difficulties, problems, and proposals, recommendations of enterprises and industry associations in the area. In addition, the industry and trade branch successfully organized a conference to meet industry associations and domestic enterprises in 2019 with the participation of 160 delegates. The conference received and resolved 44 proposals of associations and businesses.

The dedicated support of industry and trade branch created favorable conditions for key export industries of the province. Specifically, the number of export orders of enterprises in the province in 2019 increased by 15% over the previous year, of which the export value of processed industrial goods accounted for 83.9% total export turnover. Some key export items of the province with high value such as wood processing reached $ 3.2 billion (up 16%), textiles and garments $ 2.8 billion (up 15.5%), leather and footwear $ 3.1 billion (up 16.5), computers, electronic products $ 1.1 billion (up 15.4%), phones and components $ 1.8 billion (up 15.6%year on year).

To strengthen the state management

Mr. Dũng assessed, in 2019, one of the outstanding features of the industry and trade sector was the effectiveness of state management in domestic trade activities. During the year, the goods supply was abundant in designs and types, meeting people's shopping demands. Vietnamese goods dominated the market; ensured a stable market price of essential goods, contributed to curbing inflation, and implementing social security.

Enterprises in the area have also increased promotion activities, contributing to increase the total retail sales and service revenue of the province. Accordingly, in 2019, the total retail sales of goods and service revenue of the province is estimated at VND 227.805 billion, up 19.2% compared to 2018, reaching 101% compared to the 2019 target.

Determining state management is the key task of industry and trade branch, in 2019, Department of Industry and Trade implemented 7 projects, of which, 1 project was submitted to and approved by Provincial People's Committee, by the end of Dec 2019 will complete the remaining 6 projects. In addition, the department encouraged businesses to participate in the construction project of E-commerce trading floor in Binh Duong province; collaborated with Department of Information and Communications to appraise the pre-feasibility study report of Industry and Trade Data Construction Project.

The department also carried out the inspection plan in 2019. Namely, the department organized 5 inspection teams in fields of chemical activities (28 enterprises), electricity price of lodging houses, petroleum, food safety, responsibility inspection of Investment Promotion, Trade and Industrial Development Center... After inspection, the department issued warnings and instructed relevant units to overcome, made records of administrative violations, and imposed sanction on 10 cases with a total fine of VND 118 million.

Nguyễn Văn Dành, Director of Department of Industry and Trade, said that in order to meet the set targets in 2020, the department setup key tasks to promptly implement right from the beginning of the New Year. The department continues to urge and give help to accelerate the progress of infrastructure investment in industrial parks and clusters; electrical works, logistics centers, inland waterway ports; major roads, waterway and railway traffic works of the province.

The department prioritizes investment and exploitation of the established industrial clusters; advise to enhance investment attraction in processing industry, supporting industry, and some high-quality service industries, such as logistics centers, trade centers, etc. The department also encourages the establishment, and has mechanism to attract new small and medium-sized enterprises or relocation into industrial parks and clusters.

In 2020, Department of Industry and Trade will continue to boost the investment and trade promotion programs to expand export markets in order to diversify commodity consumption markets; orient and create conditions for businesses to register product brands in export markets. The department also makes good use of opportunities to open foreign markets through tariff reduction to boost exports and improve the efficiency of exporting goods to markets within FTAs.

Importantly, the department will strengthen the promulgation of FTA's commitments. At the same time, the department continues to effectively implement solutions to balance supply and demand, stabilize commodity prices on the market; continue to effectively perform the campaign "Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese goods", new rural construction program associated with production promotion, investment attraction in commercial infrastructure to develop domestic trade. The Department also strengthened inspection and control of the market to prevent smuggled goods and goods of unclear origin...

Reported by Tieu My - Translated by Ngoc Huynh