In the 2016 - 2020 period, the economic structure of Vinh Long province has seen many changes in the right direction, in which the industry - construction and trade – service have accounted for a high proportion in the province's GDP, making a positive contribution to local socio-economic development.
Sustainable Development
In recent years, the proportion of industry - construction and trade - services in the province's GRDP tends to increase each year and plays a key role in the structure of the economy (the two sectors currently account for 65%). In particular, local industries with potential, sustainable development and environmental friendliness are increasingly growing in the industrial structure.
Industry - handicraft has maintained good growth, the average industrial production value in the period 2016 - 2020 is forecast to reach 11.1% / year (compared to 2010 prices). The processing industry has formed a number of commodity sectors with comparative advantages in the province such as leather footwear, apparel, export handicrafts, canned beer and animal feed. The average industrial production index in the period 2016 - 2020 increases by 8.6% / year. Enterprises have increasingly focused on technological innovation, improving product quality, and increasing competitiveness.
The infrastructure of industrial parks (IPs) has been paid attention to investment; the province is implementing phase 2 of Hoa Phu IP, Binh Minh IP, and Co Chien Industrial Line. Currently, the province is completing investment preparation for 3 approved IPs including: Dong Binh, Binh Tan and An Dinh. Besides, it has orientated development planning for 14 industrial clusters with a total area of 692.41 ha.
Domestic trade activities have achieved a fast growth rate, the total retail sales of goods and social consumer service revenue in the 2016-2020 period increased by an average of 9.4%/year. Activities connecting trade, domestic and foreign trade promotion have initially created a bridge between production and consumption of products. The province has effectively implemented the campaign "Vietnamese give priority to using Vietnamese goods"; strengthening activities of bringing Vietnamese goods to the countryside through the organization of markets in districts.
The market system has been upgraded. Up to now, the whole province has 6 supermarkets and 115 markets (including 1 first grade market, 17 second grade market and 97 third grade market); achieving the Resolution's target. The transformation and socialization of the model of market management, exploitation and trading has had positive changes. Currently, 43 markets have been transferred to enterprises and cooperatives for management and exploitation, accounting for 37.4%; reaching the Resolution’s goals.
Import and export activities play an important role in the province's economic development, in which exports have grown rapidly, contributing to the consumption of agricultural products, improving the value of the province's products, resulting in large sources of foreign currency for the province. On average, in the 2016-2020 period, the export turnover grew by 12.72% / year. In 2020, the total export turnover of the province has reached US$ 550 million, equal to 1.82 times compared to 2015 (Resolution target is US$530 million). The structure of export products has shifted positively, industrial goods - handicraft products account for an increasingly high proportion (from 61% in 2015 to 82% in 2020).
In the period of 2021-2025, Vinh Long industry and trade will focus on developing in the direction of improving productivity and added value, associated with solutions to restructure the industry. It will perform according to the order and focus, as well as provide resources for the development of prioritized economic sectors and key economic regions. The process of developing industry and trade must be linked to the reform of administrative procedures, enhancing competitiveness at the provincial level, creating conditions to attract investment capital from all economic sectors.
In particular, it will attach importance to development according to the trend of international economic integration, consistent with international practices. The industry structure will aim towards improving competitiveness; and actively participate deeply and extensively in regional and global value chains. It will focus on technological innovation and environmental protection, improving goods quality; and deploy platform solutions to apply achievements of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
It will prioritize the development of processing industries, manufacturing and industries serving agriculture and rural areas; attract the development of supporting industries to increase opportunities to join the value chain, increase added value, and create new production capacity. It will encourage the development of renewable energy (wind, solar) projects. It will aim to promote the development of handicrafts associated with tourism growth and preserving traditional sectors. Service trade will be developed in the direction of diversification, with priority given to service industries with high added value and new industries promoting e-commerce development.
Along with that, it will review and create conditions for enterprises to consolidate and expand production activities of key industrial products and export products. At the same time, it will step up support and create all favorable conditions to speed up the implementation progress and put registered investment projects into operation soon.
Supporting business to overcome difficulties
In 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic has had a strong impact on the production and business activities of enterprises. Enterprises have been affected in regards to the delivery of input materials, production management of foreign experts has also been delayed; The financial situation has been difficult due to delayed delivery of goods, leading to slow payment, higher interest expenses; difficulty in credit cycle.
In order to contribute to stabilize the market, create conditions for industry, trade and service to overcome difficulties early and develop in the context of the complicated epidemic, the Department of Industry and Trade has promptly implemented many solutions to accompany and support businesses in the province. Specifically, it has regularly contacted the export enterprises and commercial service enterprises in the province to promptly grasp the difficulties and problems of enterprises in order to advise the Provincial People's Committee to promptly remove them.
On the other hand, it has mobilized enterprises operating mainly commercial activities of the province such as Co.op Mart supermarket, Bach Hoa Xanh stores and Vinmart to participate in stockpiling and supplying essential consumer goods in the province to stabilize the market. It has continued to implement trade promotion to seek export and domestic markets for the province's products; organizing activities to connect supply and demand between businesses with distribution systems to expand the domestic consumption market.
In addition, it has advised the Provincial Steering Committee 389 to strengthen management by locality, checking the listing of selling prices and selling at the listed prices, focusing on checking acts of taking advantage of scarcity in the market to collect goods or take advantage of the epidemic to apply unreasonable selling prices for medical and health protection equipment used for disease prevention and treatment when the market has fluctuations in supply, demand and commodity prices.
Along with that, in order to support enterprises to improve the capacity, competitiveness of products and sustainable development, the Department has created conditions for enterprises in the province to strengthen promotional activities, expanding distribution networks and orienting, encouraging and raising consumer awareness of domestically produced goods, responding to the campaign "Vietnamese give priority to using Vietnamese goods".
By Huong Giang, Vietnam Business Forum
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi