Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi will carry out an array of industry and tradedevelopment measures with a view to building Hanoi into an international tradehub in the region and the country, as well as concretising the resolutionadopted at the municipal Party Organisation’s 17th congress.

The municipal Department of Industry and Trade plans to lure more investments,and outline support measures and programmes to encourage businesses to land investmentin modern distribution and sales systems such as shopping malls andsupermarkets.

It is striving to develop five regional-level wholesale centres, tenregional-level shopping malls, 12 logistics centres, 68 trade centres, 850supermarkets and 140 markets.

Besides, Hanoi, which houses to 6,000 information technology firms and two ITparks, has taken lead in the country in terms of ICT revenue.

Furthermore, the capital city has witnessed the sound development ofinfrastructure at industrial zones, with 17 high-tech industrial parks, 70industrial clusters with stable operation, and 43 newly-established industrialclusters. Handicraft industry has been encouraged and received support, with1,350 craft villages which attract tens of thousands of labourers.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Industry and TradeTran Thi Phuong Lan, thanks to timely response to the COVID-19 pandemic andnatural disasters, the sector attained robust achievements during the 2016-2020period.

The whole sales and retail sales contributed greatly to the gross regionaldomestic product (GRDP), she said, adding total retail sales and socialservices picked up average 10.54 percent each year.

Although the city’s exports were battered by global supply chain disruption dueto COVID-19, export revenue during 2016-2020 surged 8.8 percent, or 1.68 timeshigher than the 2011-2015 period, Lan said, attributing the results to thecity’s flexible policies and drastic guidance.

However, tough challenges are ahead for the city’s industry and trade sector.They come from the curtailment of industrial production as most of the largeproduction facilities move out of the central city, and limited investment inhigh-tech industry and weak development of supporting industry. Besides,attracting investments in local industrial parks is not an easy task sinceindustrial land leasing costs in Hanoi are higher than those in localities inthe vicinity such as Ha Nam, Hoa Binh and Hung Yen.

The city also found difficulties in luring investments in trade infrastructuredue to a lack of competent management policies and mechanisms.

During the 2021-2025 period, the sector targets 7.5-8 percent growth in theadded value of the local industrial products, 9.5-9.7 percent growth inexports, and 9-10 percent in retail sales and social services.

Lan said that the sector will work to remove bottlenecks for local firms,especially supporting enterprises and those manufacturing key industrialproducts, while capitalising on the fourth industrial revolution to promotedevelopment of high-added value products and supporting industry.

In addition, it will call for investments in industrial infrastructure, andenhance state management to improve operation efficiency of local firms, she added./.