Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved automobile industry developmentplanning by 2020 with a vision towards 2030 in late July. DirectorGeneral of the Heavy Industry Department under the Ministry of Industryand Trade Nguyen Manh Quan talked with the Vietnam Economic News aboutthe issue.

*The automobile industry has not yet achieved set targets. What is your point of view?

Vietnam ’s automobile industry has achieved encouraging resultsafter nearly 20 years of construction and development. The country hasformed the assembly industry with a production capacity of about 460,000cars per year.

Together with the assembly industry, Vietnamhas also formed support industries in order to offer a number of spareparts for the automobile industry.

However, the automobileindustry has not achieved set targets. The localisation rate hasremained low and support industries have remained weak. Vietnam hasalso failed to make good connectivity among enterprises and has notformed the supply chain.

*Could you tell us more about the automobile industry’s advantages?

Inaddition to a large population, people’s living standards and transportinfrastructure have gradually been improved. These crucial factorswould contribute to an estimated demand for 400,000 cars by 2020 andabout 2 million cars by 2030. Experts said that it would be a boomphase for Vietnam and neighboring ASEAN countries’ automobileindustry between 2020 and 2030.

After nearly 20 years ofconstruction and development, Vietnam has accumulated experiencewith good technical infrastructure for the industry. In particular,Vietnam ’s automobile industry could deeply participate in the ASEAN andAsia supply chains after 2018.

Component and spare partmanufacturers should take advantage of opportunities from automobileindustry development planning and strategy to promote production,contributing to reducing costs and improving the competitiveness inorder to be able to compete with imported cars.

*Which innovation and breakthrough will the development planning and strategy offer?

Theapproval of development planning and strategy is an important premisefor the development of Vietnam ’s automobile industry in the comingtime.

We hope that the automobile industry will create abreakthrough in the time to come thanks to the Government’s strongsupport. This is an important industry serving the country’sindustrialisation and modernisation. In addition to the development oftransport infrastructure, the Government committed to adopt clear andopen mechanisms and policies.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung hasalso approved action plans to implement Vietnam ’s industrialisationstrategy within the Vietnam- Japan cooperation framework by 2020 with avision for 2030. This will also offer development opportunities for theautomobile industry. According to the strategy, Vietnam will focuson six industries, including the automobile industry.

*Which key solutions will be implemented to promote the development of the automobile industry?

Inaddition to agreeing solutions and adopting clear and open mechanismsand policies, the Government should soon issue a decree in order toencourage the development of support industries.

The Ministry ofIndustry and Trade will host and coordinate with relevant ministries anddepartments to submit to the Prime Minister for approving a decision onspecific mechanisms for the automobile industry.

The Government should promote links among enterprises, contributing to improving the competitiveness.-VNA