Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade(MoIT) should reduce industrial development’s dependence on natural resourceswhile fostering innovation-based industries, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucsaid on January 6.

At a teleconference to set up tasks for the MoITthis year, the PM emphasised that science-technology and innovation are animportant development direction of Vietnam’s industrial sector.

He noted in the short term, alongside highadded-value industries, the country still has to rely on natural resource-basedand labour intensive industries.

To develop a nation with strong competitiveness,a fair business environment for all people and businesses must be createdfirst. This is a critical task of a growth-facilitating Government of which theMoIT is a member, he said.

Outlining tasks for the sector in the year, PMPhuc told the MoIT to thoroughly deal with the big loss-making projects underits remit, reiterating that money from the State budget must not be wasted furtheron these projects.

The ministry needs to devise policies fordeveloping some important industries such as automobile, electronics andmechanics while stepping up trade promotion. It should also encourage alleconomic sectors, including State-owned enterprises, FDI firms, equitisedcompanies, and cooperatives, to engage in developing industry and trade, headded.

The Government leader also instructed developingsupport industries and industries serving agriculture, especially hi-techagriculture. He suggested a campaign be launched to promote industries thatserve hi-tech agriculture so as to turn hi-tech agriculture into a strength ofVietnam.

At the meeting, he also applauded the industryand trade sector’s contributions to the national development, adding thatprocessing and manufacturing grew 11.2 percent last year, compared to 10.5percent in 2015. The total retail sales of goods and services also expanded10.2 percent, compared to 9.72 percent in the previous year.

The PM praised the campaign “Vietnamese peopleprioritise using Vietnamese goods” as effective and the fight againstsmuggling, trade fraud, counterfeits and low-quality goods has been improved.

PM Phuc also pointed out certain shortcomingssuch as many loss-making projects, ineffective development strategies for someindustries, problematic management of the domestic market and cross-bordertrade, sluggish re-organisation of State-owned companies, and controversialappointment of some officials.

Reporting on his sector’s performance, MoITMinister Tran Tuan Anh said the whole industrial sector expanded by 7.5 percentin 2016. While mining contracted 5.9 percent, processing and manufacturing rose11.2 percent.

There remain big issues, he noted, elaboratingthat industrial growth still depended on the increase of the business number,investment capital and labour. Domestic firms are now only able to do sub-contractingwork with low added value and have to import a large volume of raw materials.Oil extraction has hit its limit while investment in exploration activities isfacing difficulties.

Export revenue was nearly 176 billion USD in2016, a year-on-year rise of 8.6 percent but lower than the growth target of 10percent, the minister said, noting that about 70 percent of the turnover wascontributed by foreign invested firms.

Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of 2.68 billionUSD last year, which Anh considered as a result of the industry and tradesector’s efforts amid disadvantages in global markets such as falling prices ofmany key commodities, including crude oil and agricultural and aquaticproducts.-VNA