City determined to develop supporting industries

The areas reserved for supporting industries include 50 hectares at Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) in District 9, and 369 hectares at Hiep Phuoc and Le Minh Xuan IPs and an IP for auto enterprises.

HCMC will develop multistory workshop buildings with total floor space of 100,000 square meters for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in supporting industries.

The city will focus more on supporting industries in the hopes that its index of industrial production would grow 7% annually in the next five years.

The city government will attract more SMEs to four major industries – manufacturing and engineering, electronics-information technology, chemical-plastic-rubber, and food processing.

The city government said other countries considered SMEs as a driving force for the development of their supporting industries. About 95% of enterprises in HCMC are SMEs and policies are needed to make supporting industries strong.

Most SMEs have difficulty finding materials for production as they have to import 70% of materials and components from foreign markets, and getting access to bank loans.

Meanwhile, the Government’s policies and incentives for supporting industries have not been of great help for SMEs due to complicated procedures.