HCM City (VNA) 𝔍– Ho Chi Minh City’s industrial development index in 2015 saw higher growth than in previous years, especially by four key industries, with the ratio of the processing and manufacturing sectors increasing and the labour-intensive and polluting industries decreasing.

According to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, the industry development index rose 7.9 percent last year compared to 7 percent in 2014. The processing and manufacturing sectors grew 8 percent, spearheading the rise in the index. It enabled the creation of 2 percent more new jobs compared with 2014. The number of new businesses rose by 29 percent while closures fell by 3.9 percent. In 2015, the share of the city's four key industries in overall manufacturing output increased marginally to 60 percent. Of this, engineering and manufacturing accounted for 20.4 percent as it used plenty of modern and cutting-edge technologies in production. Local producers were able to make many items that could replace imports and reduce prices by 30-50 percent. Electronics and IT accounted for just 4.1 percent of the production but grew by a high 11 percent. Chemicals, rubber and plastics changed its development trend by becoming more environment-friendly. The industry accounted for 18.6 percent of manufacturing output and grew by 1.9 percent. Products like automobile and motorbike tyres and tubes were exported to many foreign markets. The food and beverages industry, the last of the four, focused on quality as it accounted for nearly 17 percent of total industrial value and achieved growth of 11.1 percent. Two other strong, traditional industries, footwear and textile and garments, each continued to account for 17.7 percent of manufacturing value. The former grew by 4.6 percent and the latter by 8.2 percent. The department also pointed out many shortcomings faced by the manufacturing sector. "Industrial production growth is below potential," a department spokesperson was quoted as saying by Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper. The quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of the industrial sector improved, but not strongly enough, he said. It was changing rapidly towards the right mix, but value-addition and the ratio of processing, which is not labour-intensive or polluting, remain low, he admitted. This year the city again targets 7 percent growth overall for industry, and 7.2 percent for the four key industries, he said. To achieve the targets, the department would continue support efforts to reduce the ratio of labour-intensive and polluting industries and promote knowledge-based, high-tech, energy-saving and environment-friendly industries, he said. The four key industries and supporting industries would get assistance in terms of funding and training human resources.-VNA