Hanoi (VNA) - A database ofVietnamese manufacturing and supporting industries was launched on June 19 with aview to helping enhance links between businesses, including between domesticand foreign concerns.

The database was launched under a coordinatedeffort by the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Industry Agency and theInternational Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, withsponsorship from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and theSwiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Addressing the ceremony, Minister of Industryand Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the database aims to boost business-to-businessconnectivity, including between domestic and foreign enterprises.

It will help companies and investors find accurateinformation swiftly, thus facilitating partnerships and increasing opportunitiesfor cooperation between Vietnamese companies and multilateral companies, he noted.

The system will prove itself even more useful giventhat the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face partnership activities, hewent on, and will help companies seize the opportunities generated bynew-generation free trade agreements Vietnam has signed, such as theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Supporting industries have been a magnet forforeign investment in Vietnam but links in production chains remain slack andlocal firms are still struggling to match supply and demand.

The Industry Agency has updated the databasewith information on 500 companies in mechanical engineering, 347 in the autoindustry, 750 in the electronics sector, 1,145 in textile and garmentproduction, and 910 in leather and footwear manufacturing.

IFC Country Manager for Vietnam Kyle Kelhofersaid the database debuts just as COVID-19 is having a major impact on globalvalue chains.

Enhancements to links between domestic and multilateralcompanies via the database, along with Vietnam’s stable and low-risk businessclimate, which was confirmed by its success in swiftly controlling COVID-19,promise to help assert the country as a key processing and manufacturing hub inthe region, he added.

With an annual growth rate of 10.6 percent,processing and manufacturing is the driver of Vietnam’s entire industrialsector. It attracted 21.6 billion USD in foreign investment in 2019, or 67.8percent of the total./.