Posted on 05 Nov 2009
An increase of 8 percent in industrial, production value estimated for this year is one of the most striking features of overall economic growth, officials say.
The newspaper Vietnam Economic Times cites industry insiders as saying that over the last three months, industrial production value has grown steadily by double digits from 10.6 percent in August, to 12.4 percent in September and 11.9 percent in October.
The impressive growth is attributed to the government's economic stimulus programme, measures to foster investment in enterprises to boost production and recovery from the global economic recession.
The increase in industrial production value will contribute significantly to the national GDP growth rate of about 5 percent this year.
However, officials also note that the growth in industrial value this year is the lowest over the two decades.
The processing industry, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the total industrial production, has been hit hard by falling exports as a result of the global economic downturn.
This is one of the major factors in the fall in industrial production value from last year's growth rate of 13 percent.
According to the general Statistical Office, private enterprises have recorded the highest growth of 8.9 percent due to their focus on increasing production of high quality, competitively priced industrial goods for both domestic and export markets.
Ranked second is the foreign invested industrial sector which has grown by 7.4 percent, while the State-run sector has experienced the lowest growth rate of 3.6 percent in the last ten months.
Several localities have reported high growth rates in industrial value, including Quang Ninh (13.5 percent), Thanh Hoa (12.1 percent)
The industrial sector still faces several difficulties related to capital, fierce competition in domestic and foreign markets, higher imports and stockpiles of goods and increasing prices of input materials.
The sector has called on the government to continue subsidising the interest rate on loans for enterprises and launch the second economic stimulus package soon to sustain socio-economic development.
