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City raises export target to beat recession
An export growth of 16.5 per cent this year will be a major part of HCM City’s plans to fight and prevent economic recession, said Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy Chairwoman of the city’s People’s Committee.
The city would focus on ways to achieve this target, she said at a meeting earlier this week with various departments, sectors and trade associations.
At the meeting, the city’s Department of Industry and Trade made two forecasts for export growth in 2009. The first one has export turnover likely to hit US$15.68 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent, in case the global financial crisis lasts until the end of the third quarter this year.
The second forecast put the export turnover at about $16.3 billion, an increase of 16.5 per cent compared with last year, if the current global financial crisis ends earlier in the second quarter of this year.
The city’s export growth target was higher than the national rate of 13 per cent.
The city will continue urging different agencies and credit organisations to assist businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to boost production and reach the target of $9.2 billion in export value of industrial and handicraft items, a year-on year increase of 20 per cent.
Agricultural, forestry and seafood exports are expected to reach $3.5 billion, an increase of 5.8 per cent over last year.
To achieve this year’s export target which was considered relatively high by economists, Hong has urged businesses to focus on key products like garments, footwear, agricultural and fishery items.
She also asked them to make efforts to find new markets in Latin America, North Africa and Middle East, apart from the traditional markets of the US, EU and Japan that had been hard hit by the recession.
She also urged domestic enterprises to look for export opportunities in neighbouring countries including Cambodia, where Vietnamese goods had topped sales over the last two years.
A turnover of $988 million in 2008 put Vietnamese goods ahead of China ($784 million) and Thailand ($674 million) in the Cambodian market.
To make trade promotion more effective, the city will organise domestic and foreign fairs to help businesses introduce their goods and directly contact customers, Hong added.
The city has also asked the municipal Department of Industry and Trade to co-operate with the HCM City Association of Fine Arts and Timber Processing and map out plans to establish a wholesale market for building materials and wooden products.
Business and trade associations would also receive guidelines from the city administration regarding policy support for boosting production and export involving preferential loans, taxes and land-use rights, Hong said.
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