Taking advantage of policies, optimizing value chains

Helping businesses overcome barriers in capital, technology and output

Supporting industry is considered an important foundation to promote sustainable economic development, reducing dependence on imported raw materials and components. However, attracting investment in this field still faces many challenges in terms of capital, technology and supply chain connectivity.

At the recent seminar "Attracting investment in supporting industry: leveraging from policies", according to Mr. Pham Van Quan, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ), in the first 9 months of 2025, Vietnam achieved a record import-export turnover of 681 billion USD, of which exports reached 349 billion USD, imports 332 billion USD, creating a trade surplus of 17 billion USD. However, a worrying fact is that 94% of Vietnam's imported goods are raw materials, spare parts and components, items that Vietnam can completely produce itself if it strongly develops the foundation industry and supporting industry, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry Pham Van Quan said.

Accordingly, the room for development of the supporting industry is huge, but investment capital, especially from FDI enterprises, is still limited. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, from 2020 to now, the total investment of FDI enterprises in supporting industry has only reached about 20 billion USD, while investment from domestic enterprises is even lower, ranging from 5 - 6 billion USD.

*Vietnam has a lot of room to develop its supporting industry. Photo: PV*

Mr. Pham Van Quan pointed out that the biggest difficulty of Vietnamese enterprises lies in two core factors: capital and technology. Investing in supporting industries requires large capital and modern technology, which is the weakness of domestic enterprises. FDI enterprises have not really opened up, encouraging Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the supply chain due to strict technical requirements and international standards.

Therefore, Decree No. 205/2022/ND-CP amending and supplementing Decree No. 111/2015/ND-CP on supporting industry development has been designed to require FDI enterprises participating in the support program to have a contractual link with at least one Vietnamese enterprise, in order to create a "path" for domestic enterprises to enter the chain. Notably, Decree 205 also expands the scope of support, from research, testing, technology transfer to market support and tax incentives. Enterprises participating in supporting industries are entitled to preferential loan interest rates 3% lower than commercial loans, and are also supported with R&D (research and development) costs and trial production at industrial development centers invested by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. "The goal is to help enterprises overcome barriers in capital, technology and output," affirmed Deputy Director of the Department of Industry Pham Van Quan.

Mr. Ho Ngoc Toan, Deputy General Director of Automech Mechanical Equipment and Solutions Joint Stock Company , said that besides the advantages, Vietnamese enterprises still face 5 weaknesses: small scale, limited capital, not meeting international standards, outdated technology and lack of design industry. To overcome this, Mr. Toan recommends that enterprises need to proactively innovate, invest in R&D as well as digitalization to meet market demand.

Investing in human resources, building domestic supply chains

Sharing the successful experience of enterprises in participating in the supply chain, Automech Mechanical Equipment and Solutions Joint Stock Company identified supporting industry and mechanical engineering as the foundation for other industries. According to Deputy General Director Ho Ngoc Toan, the enterprise has taken systematic steps, from accessing advanced technology from Europe, Japan, and Korea, to investing in human resources and building a domestic supply chain. Automech also received great support from the Vietnam Association of Supporting Industry Enterprises (VASI) and local authorities in connecting partners and completing investment procedures.

As one of the "bright spots" of the supporting industry, Bac Ninh province has implemented many mechanisms to accompany businesses. Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Bac Ninh, said that in order to attract investment capital into the supporting industry, the province has issued policies and incentive mechanisms for investment enterprises as well as implemented activities to support businesses when investing in production and business in the locality. Accordingly, the province has signed a tripartite cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Provincial People's Committee and Samsung Electronics Vietnam to advise on production improvement for supporting industry enterprises in the period 2020 - 2025. The program focuses on three contents: improving management capacity, improving production processes and applying digital transformation, helping businesses access modern production standards.

Bac Ninh also pioneered the implementation of the "24-hour Green Channel" and "60% Green Channel" mechanisms to quickly process administrative procedures for industrial investment projects, in parallel with the development of traffic infrastructure, industrial clusters and specialized zones, Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan emphasized.

To effectively utilize Decree No. 205/2025/ND-CP on supporting industry development, the province is planning to form specialized supporting industrial zones, creating clusters of linkages between production and manufacturing enterprises and output enterprises, reducing transportation costs and optimizing the value chain. The province also proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade soon issue a national plan on supporting industry development, assigning specific tasks to each locality, helping to clearly define responsibilities, key products and target markets.

Providing more information about the breakthrough solutions being implemented to support supporting industry enterprises, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry Pham Van Quan informed that the Government is building the Law on Key Industries, with the goal of mastering key industries in materials, mechanics, supporting industries, technology, etc.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is building a professional industrial development fund, in which it is expected to propose that the Government allocate nearly 1% of GDP to support the fund. According to Mr. Pham Van Quan, the foundation industry and strategic industry will contribute much more to GDP than the expected 1%. This fund also has breakthrough mechanisms to support businesses to borrow capital faster, such as empowering localities to check the proposal documents of businesses appropriately. The Ministry of Industry and Trade also hopes that in the upcoming National Assembly session, it will pass a number of policies to have more tools put into practice, creating momentum for the "explosion" of supporting industry enterprises in the coming period.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/tan-dung-chinh-sach-toi-uu-chuoi-gia-tri-10390557.html