Right from the beginning of 2023, the business sector of Ho Chi Minh City has urgently accelerated the pace of production and export, creating momentum for the following quarters. With solutions to improve the investment environment, production support, and business by the city government, companies expect the export value to grow positively in 2023.

Businesses face new opportunities

Right from the first days of the new year, the production machinery of enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City has returned to the inherent “circle”, creating new confidence and motivation for growth. Believing in the future, Cao Phat Dat Label Printing and Production One Member Co., Ltd (Cao Phat Dat Company) aims to increase production by 20%, and develop 30% more new customers in 2023. Mr. Nguyen Quyet Thang, a Cao Phat Dat Company representative, said that the company is confident in achieving the above goal because its products have been deeply involved in the global supply chain.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association, production costs are still high, competitive pressure is high, and consumption is in the cooling down period are challenges that businesses are facing. However, some areas are facing new opportunities. Chairman of the Board of Members of Duy Khanh Mechanical Co., Ltd. Do Phuoc Tong said that Vietnam’s precision engineering industry still has good competitiveness in the world market, and stable demand should be expected from the end of the 2023’s first quarter so businesses will have more new orders.

Meanwhile, the handicraft and wood processing industries are also having a chance to recover when the main export market, the United States (accounting for 60% of Vietnam’s wood product export value) gradually stabilizes. Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts and Woodworking Association Nguyen Chanh Phuong said that the first quarter of 2023 is the time when businesses in the industry focus on developing models to be ready to receive new orders from the beginning of the 2023 second quarter.

According to experts, the current requirement is that enterprises must increase their competitiveness and at the same time reduce production costs to serve as a firm stepping stone when the market heats up again in the second quarter of 2023. To do this, manufacturing enterprises must increase the rate of automation and product restructuring, move towards green product production, and meet the standards to penetrate difficult markets.

“Exporting businesses cannot “put their eggs in one basket” like before, but need to diversify markets, not ignoring niche markets,” said the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association Nguyen Ngoc Hoa. 

Striving for export growth of 6%

In order to fulfill the socio-economic development tasks and targets in 2023, Ho Chi Minh City will implement breakthrough solutions to perfect mechanisms and policies, creating maximum convenience for businesses. Agencies, departments, and branches are proactive and creative in operating, promoting economic development, and flexibly adapting to domestic and international situations.

For manufacturing and exporting enterprises, Ho Chi Minh City supports stabilizing capital supply such as coordinating with the State Bank and districts to deploy a program to connect banks and businesses in the first quarter of 2023; promulgating a resolution stipulating policies to support interest rates on loans for investment and development of supporting industries for the period of 2023-2027. The city also supports the training of human resources in the fields of logistics, e-commerce, distribution system management, production, and consumption. In addition, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City will organize programs to support the development of businesses and products in three key industries (mechanics – automation, food processing – food, rubber – plastic). ); organize industrial development orientation programs…

Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade Bui Ta Hoang Vu said that in 2023, the city’s export sector strives to grow by 6%. Usually, starting from the second quarter of the year is the peak of receiving new orders. Along with the recovery of the world market, tariff preferences from 15 existing trade agreements are favorable conditions for the city’s export industry to grow. The city’s Department of Industry and Trade is also promoting multi-channel trade promotion activities, connecting multi-form trade, and supporting enterprises to effectively exploit export markets. Trade promotion activities and supply-demand connections not only stop at the field but also make the most of online platforms.

Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc said that the city is closely monitoring the situation of domestic and foreign markets, improving its forecasting capacity, and promptly warning of risks affecting production, export, and import to have appropriate orientations and solutions. In the immediate future, the city proposed the banking industry to open credit and bring capital flow into production and business effectively.

Source: The New Hanoi Newspaper