HCM City Overcomes Difficulties for High Industrial Growth

On May 25, 2005, Le Thanh Hai, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, vice chairman Nguyen Thien Nhan, and Bui Xuan Khu, permanent deputy minister of industry, had a working session with local textile, garment, footwear, fine art, and food enterprises. This is a monthly working session for local authorities to understand and help enterprises overcome their difficulties to promote business and production activities.

Bui Xuan Khu said that the estimated figure in late May showed that Vietnam gained an increase of 15.7 per cent in industrial production value while the figure of Ho Chi Minh City reached only 12.8 per cent. The city should implement measures to restore its development tempo and create a breakthrough in trademark building, in particular building of several strong trademarks.

At the working session, enterprises said that a limit of spending of 10 per cent of revenues on advertisement was unreasonable, as foreign-invested enterprises have spent a lot of money promoting their trademarks and products. For start-up businesses, their products have yet to become known to customers. As a result, their revenues are small and spending of 10 per cent of their revenues cannot help them to develop their trademarks. Le Thanh Hai asked the Ho Chi Minh City Trade and Investment Promotion Centre to act as the focal point to help local enterprises build their trademarks. The centre should co-operate with the mass media to provide support for enterprises for this purpose.

Some enterprises talked about their difficulties in relocation, procedures in getting certificates on workshop use rights, VAT refunding and expressed their wished that local authorities would help them overcome these difficulties immediately. Quach To Dung, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry, said that many enterprises complained relocation as they had yet to have new locations but they had to handle their old locations. Director of the Lien Thanh Fish Sauce Company said that the local authorities guided his company to relocate to the Can Gio seafood centre but the said centre had no to fish sauce making enterprises. Finally, his company had to buy land in Phu Quoc Island. Phan Minh Co, general director of TRIBECO, said that his company had not had land for production for two years. Hai asked relevant departments and agencies to provide support to relocated enterprises. Accordingly, locations should be found for relocated fish sauce making enterprises before June 15, 2005 to complete the plans of industrial parks and complexes for the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee to consider.

• Hai Nguyen