Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s index of industrialproduction index (IIP) in May expanded 4.6 percent against the previous monthand 10 percent year-on-year, the General Statistics Office said on May 29.

In the first five months of this year, theindex rose 9.4 percent year-on-year, lower than the growth of 10.3 percentrecorded in the same period last year but higher than 7.4 percent and 6.6percent in the corresponding time of 2016 and 2017.

The processing and manufacturing sector,responsible for a large part of domestic industrial production, reported the IIPgrowth of 10.9 percent while the IIP growth of electricity production anddistribution stood at 10.3 percent and that of water supply and waste-sewagetreatment sector reached 7.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the mining sector’s IIP dropped0.1 percent year-on-year, according to the GSO.

Some major industrial products achieved highproduction growth in the first five months, such as coke coal and refinedmining products (84 percent), metal (40.5 percent), ore exploitation (14.9percent), motor vehicles (14.7 percent) and rubber and plastic products (14.1percent).

However, others experienced slight growth oreven declines in the IIP, such as electronics, computers and optical devices (up3.1 percent); tobacco (up 2.6 percent); medicines, pharmaceutical chemicals andpharmaceutical material production (up 1.4 percent); production of othervehicles (down 2.3 percent); services in support of the mining industry (down3.5 percent); and exploitation of crude oil and natural fuels (down 4 percent).

The GSO said as of May 1, the number oflabourers in industrial firms increased 1.4 percent month-on-month and 2.2percent year-on-year. Employees in State-owned businesses contracted 0.9percent while those in non-State and FDI enterprises rose 1.3 percent and 3.1percent.

During January-May, the processing andmanufacturing sector attracted the largest amount of FDI, with total capital innew projects exceeding 4.7 billion USD, 73.5 percent of accumulated investmentin new projects overall.   

Additional and new capital injected in the sectorin the period was more than 7.01 billion USD, accounting for 77.2 percent ofthe total.

Experts said the country’s industrial growthwas driven by increases in the number of enterprises, investment capital andlabourers. Meanwhile, productivity remained low and gaps with other countries likeChina, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Japan and theRepublic of Korea continued to widen.

Industrial growth, especially the processingand manufacturing sector, still relied on FDI firms.

Experts, therefore, suggested creatingnational branded and competitive products, integrating more deeply into globalvalue chains and stepping up industrial structural reform.-VNA