HCM City targets 5 per cent growth in industrial production, and 9 per cent growth in foreign trade this year. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — HCM City will promote manufacturing and exports this year, its Department of Industry and Trade has said.

It targets 5 per cent industrial growth, 10 per cent growth in retail sales of goods and services and 9 per cent increase in foreign trade (excluding crude oil).

It told a meeting held early this week to review industrial production and trade in 2021 and set tasks for this year that the index of industrial production declined by an estimated 14.3 per cent last year due to the impacts of COVID-19, with the city’s four key industrial clusters (food processing, pharmaceutical chemicals-rubber-plastic, mechanical engineering, and electronics) shrinking by 10.6 per cent.

To quickly revive the city’s economy, this year the department will focus on developing the industrial sector, high-tech sectors, supporting industries, and the four key clusters comprehensively.

It will pay greater attention to promoting key industrial products and those with potential in 2021-25 to foster development of others.

It will continue to transform the export structure with a focus on support services and products and services like software, digital content and others in which the city has advantages.

It will make efforts to attract large investors who can produce and export high value-added products, step up export promotion to expand markets, especially to countries with which Việt Nam has free trade agreements.

The department also seeks to boost the development of e-commerce to meet consumption trends.

Other plans include strengthening links between producers and distributors and retailers 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.

Speaking at the meeting, Phan Thị Thắng, vice chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, appreciated the efforts made by the department and industrial and trading businesses last year.

She urged the department to quickly implement the economic recovery plan and assess the efficiency of stimulus programmes to offer more practical supports to businesses to prevent a situation where there are many support programmes but with businesses unable to benefit from them.

She urged it to link up with its counterparts in other cities and provinces, industry groups and others to enable more firms to join supply chains for the domestic and export markets. — VNS