Industrial Sector Must Work out Strategy for WTO Bid: Deputy PM

Industrial Sector Must Work out Strategy for WTO Bid: Deputy PM

Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan is pushing the Ministry of Industry to tailor development strategies for each industry in accordance with the world market as the nation's deadline to join the World Trade Organization this year is fast approaching.

The Deputy PM told Minister Hoang Trung Hai and other senior officials at a working session on March 21 that along with providing consultancy for the government to build a comprehensive legal system, the ministry should devise its own procedures to create a legal corridor that works for all economic sectors.

To increase the competitiveness of industrial products, the ministry should have a structure that allows the country to take advantage of its strengths as well as help enterprises integrate into the global economy, said Khoan.

Minister Hai admitted that his agency is having difficulty making the required alterations for WTO admission.

The Government is reducing its control over the industrial sector, thus it is putting increasing pressure on the sector to increase its international competitiveness, said the top industrial leader and his agency would also do its best to increase exports.

"For the immediate future, the industrial sector will take advantage of the agricultural economy to develop the production of consumer goods and food processing. But in the long-term strategy, the sector will increase its competitiveness by developing high-tech industries and a knowledge-based economy," said the industrial leader.

Vietnam’s current key industrial products include garments and textiles, footwear, electronic components, coal, mechanical products, handicrafts, and woodwork.

Vietnam expects to gain a total of US$22.9 billion from exporting industrial products this year, up 18.2 per cent against last year and accounting for 75 per cent of the country’s total export turnover expected in the year.

In the first two months of this year, the country posted a total industrial production value of 65.4 trillion (US$1.16 billion), up 16.1 per cent on-year.

The People