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Export companies thirsty for materials
Lacking domestically made materials has been cited as the main reason that explains why Vietnamese exporters, especially high technology firms find it hard to boost exports.
According to the HCM City High Technology Park’s Board of Management, in 2011, the enterprises in the park exported the products worth one billion dollars, an increase of 200 percent over 2010.
In order to export 6.5 billion dollars worth of products by 2015 as targeted (Intel alone would export 6 billion dollars worth of products), the enterprises in the park would need high volume of materials for production, which is believed to account for 60 percent of the products’ value.
However, the problem is that the enterprises still have been relying on the import materials provided by foreign manufacturers who have been providing under the global supply chain.
Dr Le Phan Hoang Chieu, Director of the Research and Development Center of the park said that in the last six years, the investors in the park have been looking for and cooperating with domestic suppliers in order to increase the localization ratio of products. However, Chieu said that the result remains modest with the locally made content proportion of less than five percent of the demand.
The domestically made products are mainly plastics, some equipment that serve the assembling and measurement, or equipment maintenance.
Also according to Dr Chieu, the enterprises in the hi-tech park meet difficulties in seeking material suppliers partially because domestic enterprises still cannot provide the products which can meet the quality standards, while they cannot deliver products on schedule.
Le Bich Loan, Deputy Head of the park’s board of management, said that the park would reserve a five hectare land plot to serve the development of supporting industries. The project would be kicked off right in 2012 which would last until 2015.
Besides, the park would also organize a lot of workshops which help bridge high-technology enterprises which need materials and domestic material producers and suppliers. It would also join forces with Intel to push up the training to support domestic enterprises, and especially, build a specific website for the enterprises in supporting industries.
However, it is not easy at all to apply the policies to help develop supporting industries. In garment and footwear industries, for example, the policies to develop supporting industries have been discussed for a long time. However, no considerable progress has been made in the fields so far.
Truong Thi Thuy Lien, Director of Lien Phat Company, which has invested in the garment and footwear material center in Di An district of Binh Duong province, has said that the center has stopped operation. Meanwhile, garment companies once put a high hope on the center, thinking that the center would satisfy the domestic demand, while garment and footwear producers would not have to rely on imports. The project planned to cover an area of 16 hectares and had the investment capital of 190 billion dong.
Lien went on to say that some Italian businesses have expressed their intention to cooperate with Lien Phat to develop the production of materials. However, she said, Lien Phat still needs to think about the plan.
If such a plan is implemented, the material center would need to have nearly 1000 stalls. Meanwhile, the Italian enterprises have just promised to fill in 20 stalls. Besides, Italian materials are mostly high quality products which are expensive. Therefore, we would need a specific market for Italian products.
In February 2012, a group of 20 Italian groups would meet and discuss with Lien Phat on the establishment of a fashion institute which would specialize in training designers, or designing models to sell to domestic producers.
vietnamnet
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