Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (second, left) visits a booth displaying mechanical products. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc emphasised the need to facilitate the development of the mechanical engineering industry while addressing a conference in Hà Nội on Tuesday.
Mechanical businesses would need incentives to participate in national projects, access information and cutting-edge technologies, and step up technological application in order to improve their productivity and competitiveness, he said.

The sector would develop further if there were suitable macro policies, especially those on tax and interest rates, the leader said, adding it was necessary to develop auto mechanics which has high added value, along with the processing industry and mechanic technologies in service of agriculture.

The leader suggested improving the quality of trade promotion activities to attract the world’s biggest investors to the domestic mechanical sector, and intensifying the fight against trade fraud and trafficking in this sphere.

He assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to devise the Government’s resolution on solutions to develop Việt Nam’s mechanical engineering industry by 2030, which is expected to be issued at the end of this year.

The PM asked the State Bank of Việt Nam to coordinate with the MoIT to study credit policies in support of mechanical firms.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment were asked to perfect regulations on land in service of large-scale agricultural production, thus facilitating agricultural mechanisation.

Localities must play a more active role in attracting both domestic and foreign mechanical enterprises, and put forth preferential policies, he stressed, affirming that the Government always accompanied mechanical businesses, helping them optimise opportunities to further develop.

Việt Nam is now home to about 21,000 mechanical firms of different scales, which demonstrates the determination of ministries, agencies and businesses to promote the domestic mechanical sector, as well as the increasing demand for mechanical technologies.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy PM Trịnh Đình Dũng emphasised that "mechanical engineering is a key industrial sector and a growth engine of national development", given Việt Nam’s process of industrialisation and modernisation.

The processing and manufacturing sector has reportedly made up nearly 40 per cent of the net revenue of enterprises over recent years, with mechanical engineering accounting for more than 36 per cent. — VNS