Võ Văn Hoan, deputy chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, speaks at a meeting to review the city’s industrial production and trade in 2022 and set tasks for this year in HCM City on January 9. — VNS Photo

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