HCM CITY — HCM City will undertake activities this year to boost manufacturing and supporting industries, according to the local Department of Industry and Trade.

Speaking at a seminar in the city yesterday, Nguyễn Phương Đông, the department’s deputy director, said his agency would create a database of businesses in supporting industries and offer training programmes based on businesses’ needs.

City authorities would periodically meet with business executives from these sectors to resolve the difficulties they face, he said.

The city would continue to implement its investment stimulus programme that provides preferential loans to firms in key sectors, including manufacturing and supporting industry.

The programme also sought to encourage domestic firms to invest in technology to improve their capacity and competitiveness, he said.

Eligible firms would have 50-100 per cent of their loan interest subsidised for up to seven years, he said.

Twenty six companies have applied for loans since the programme was launched last October, with three getting them.

Typical products

Phạm Ngọc Anh, deputy director of the department’s Centre for Supporting Industries Development, said the city has a programme to select typical manufacturing and supporting industry products to gradually create a list of such products.

Organised every two years, it focuses on the mechanical engineering, rubber and plastic, food and foodstuff, electronic, garment and textile, and footwear sectors, he said.

Businesses participating in the programme would enjoy benefits like being part of the city’s trade promotion programmes both at home and abroad, he said.

Đông said the department would organise an international supporting industries exhibition in September to help businesses promote their products and production capacity and enable them to link up with local and foreign partners and enter the global supply chain.

Hoàng Thọ Vương, director of the Centre for Supporting Industries Development, said the third Việt Nam International Supporting Industries Exhibition would feature more than 10,000 products from 150 exhibitors.

It would also include seminars and business-matching programmes to enable local business executives meet potential customers, he said.

At the seminar yesterday, Jabil Việt Nam Co.,Ltd., a subsidiary of the US-based electronic product solutions company Jabil Circuit Inc., displayed products and items the company wants to source locally.

Raymond Ngang, regional commodity manager at the company, said last year the company bought US$35 million worth of mechanical products (imports and local), including plastics, cables, keypads, metal, packaging materials, die cut materials, lens, printing materials  and others.

With the company expected to enjoy a 30 per cent growth rate this year the purchasing could reach $45 million, he said, adding that he encouraged local suppliers to make contact. — VNS