HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s industrial production index (IIP) rose 11.2 per cent on-year in the first eight months of this year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) has announced.

The growth, higher than the 8.2 per cent in the same period last year, was mainly fuelled by crude oil production, which expanded by 510 per cent and 520 per cent in June and July respectively, compared to last year’s corresponding period.

GSO statisticians attributed the oil sector’s strong IIP rise to the opening of the Nghi Sơn Oil Refinery and Petrochemical complex – the country’s largest of its kind – in the central province of Thanh Hóa in June and another, Bình Sơn, in the central Quảng Ngãi Province – which resumed operations in the same month after annual maintenance.

Some sectors in the secondary industry (dominated by the manufacturing of finished products) also saw high growth, such as coal production, up 120 per cent; refined oil production (up 60 per cent), mineral mining support services (up 39 per cent ), electronics, computers and optical products (up 18 per cent) and pharmaceuticals (up 17.5 per cent).

Many primary products rose substantially against the same period last year, including oil and gas (up 51 per cent); handsets components (up 37 per cent); liquefied petroleum gas (up 25 per cent) and televisions (up 22 per cent). Other items included synthetic fibres (up 21 per cent); refined sugar (up 18 per cent) and seafood feed (up 17.6 per cent).

However, some products saw slight declines in production due to lower demand, such as mobile phones (down 2.3 per cent) and urea fertiliser (down 3 per cent).

Among localities recording higher growth in industrial production against 2017’s corresponding period, the northern port city of Hải Phòng led with growth of 24 per cent. It was followed by four other northern provinces of Bắc Ninh, Vĩnh Phúc, Thái Nguyên and Hải Dương with respective rises of 20 per cent, 14 per cent, 12 per cent and 9.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Hà Nội and HCM City witnessed a modest IIP increase of 7.5 per cent.

As of August 1, the number of labourers in the industrial sector increased 3 per cent from the same period last year, with a 1 per cent rise in the State-owned sector, 3.2 per cent in the non-State-owned sector and 3.5 per cent in the foreign-invested sector, the GSO said.

Earlier, the GSO predicted the IIP may slow down in the rest of this year, reflecting the increasing importance of sustainable development. 

The office recommended strengthening connectivity among businesses and the enhancement of their capacity to join supply chains, thus making industry grow more sustainably.

It is necessary to continue reducing business conditions, simplifying administrative procedures, enhancing the quality of online public services and using advanced technology to boost the growth of industry.

The office also stressed the need to handle stagnant and ineffective projects by the end of 2018, thus giving more resources to the development of industry. — VNS