HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’sindustrial production was forecast to maintain steady growth in 2018 with theindustrial production index (IIP) to rise about 8-8.5 percent against lastyear, according to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

Nguyen Phuong Dong, deputy director of thedepartment, said that the manufacturing and processing sector was estimated toincrease by 8.2 percent in 2018 while the electronic industry will alsocontinue to grow well.

The department expects the mechanicalengineering sector to develop remarkably in future. For example, themarket-orientation of Mercedes-Benz is focusing on manufacturing in Vietnam todistribute to the ASEAN market. The market entry of Deahan Motor, Vinh Phat andSAMCO will also help contribute to the development of the city’s automobileindustry.

However, enterprises are facing manydifficulties and challenges, especially competitive pressure involved indeepening integration.

Ly Kim Chi, chairwoman of the HCM City Foodand Foodstuff Association, said most enterprises in the association were smalland medium-sized and faced many difficulties in capital, product output,production technology. These companies would find it difficult to compete withbusinesses in the ASEAN region, as they enjoy many incentives related to taxes,interest rates and other tools.

To accelerate the restructure of theindustry, the department’s representative said that in 2018, the city woulddeploy more solutions to support businesses to develop production, especiallysupporting industry enterprises.

Le Nguyen Duy Oanh, deputy director of HCMCity Centre of Supporting Industries Development, said this year, the centrewould focus on supporting manufacturing enterprises to improve their supplycapacity, expand production, approach domestic and foreign partners, step bystep joining in the global supply chain.

Last year, the city’s IIP increased by 7.9 percentcompared to 2016. Of this, the manufacturing and processing sector increased bymore than 8 percent, four major industries increased by 13.9 percent, higherthan the average rate of the industry sector and exceeding the target of 2017.

Dong said industrial production was showingstability in both the short and long term. Specifically, the IIP gradually rosein 2017 (up 6.02 percent in the first three months, 7.51 percent at half year,7.84 percent at three quarters and 7.9 percent for the whole year).

In addition, he said, IIP had tended toincrease gradually over the past five years (6.58 percent in 2013, 6.99 percentin 2014, 7.24 percent in 2015, 7.25 percent in 2016 and 7.9 percent in 2017).

Last year, the four key industries in thecity achieved impressive growth. Notably, the electronic and informationtechnology sector had remarkable growth. The IIP increased 39.11 percentcompared to 2016 although there were only 260 enterprises operating in thecity.

From August 2017 until now, the sectorincreased more than 30 percent due to the application of high level technology,science and technology at projects by the world’s leading economies (such asSamsung) in the field of semi-conductor technology, micro-chip technology andelectronic boards. - VNA