As one of enterprises with key industrial products in Ha Noi, Vicostone exports engineered quartz to the US. — Photo bizlive

Enterprises with key industrial products asked Ha Noi to further cut the administration procedures and set up an official legal consultancy when they met local Department of Industry and Trade on Wednesday.

Last year, the department classified and prioritised enterprises with high tech, environmentally friendly products and those which help high economic growth.

These include businesses in technology, electronics, plastics and chemicals, textile and garment, and food production which will enjoy the incentive policies to boost production.

In the workshop, held by the department to review the development of the enterprises in Ha Noi yesterday, Pham Anh Tuan, CEO of Vicostone Joint Stock Company, appreciated the recognition and attention from of the city and the department.

However, Tuan believed more should be done to help them.

He told the workshop: “The department should have a consultant section so that enterprises can ask about the related matters or they must do all by themselves, which is costly and time wasting.”

Tuan’s enterprise which exports engineered quartz to the US is facing possible anti-dumping tax from because of much cheaper and counterfeit products from Viet Nam.

Tuan told Viet Nam News: “Some local competitors are selling low-quality products imported from China labeled Vietnamese to the US 20 per cent lower.”

Tuan was confident his products can compete he could sell them at high prices. But the cheap prices of others make the average price in Viet Nam much lower, which is possible to violate the price regulation in the US.

“As a result, my firm would be influenced too,” said Tuan.

In that case, Tuan must hire both local and international lawyers to help him find a solution. He added: “It is complicated as we must study almost everything from the beginning because there is not much guide from the department for a similar case to help enterprises.”

Though administrative works have been reformed, he said there was still overlapping between different functional agencies, making an example that his new product which is made from raw sand cannot be exported because “they cannot define a right type of tax for the product.”

If he still wants to export, he must export his products as raw sand but the tax of 30 per cent for raw sand export was too high, he added.

After six months running the production, Tuan said: “Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of the product are still in the storage while there are partners asking to buy.”

Tuan asked the department to work with others to speed up every process because to export a product out of the country, exporters like him needed to undergo a lot of functional agencies.

A representative from Thuong Dinh Cable Wire firm asked the city to reduce the administrative inspections to firms as it takes time. He told the department there are often 30 inspection teams at his firm each year and many of the inspections are duplicated.

Noting all ideas including problems relating to land use rights, license granting and other procedures of the enterprises, the department director Le Hong Thang confirmed they would gather recommendations and transfer to relating functional agencies in the city as soon as possible.

At the same time, they would propose to a higher level of the city and the Central Government to help solve the problem, giving the condition for those enterprises to develop their businesses, Thang said.

On the same day, the participants of the workshop also built a framework for the city’s key industrial enterprise club so that they can be well connected to support each other and strengthen the community.

According to the department’s deputy Dam Tien Thang, after nearly two years, there are now more than 60 enterprises with 100 products recognised as enterprises with key industrial products among more than 10,000 firms of the city. Their revenues are reported to reach VND46 trillion (US$1.98 billion), accounting for about 43 per cent the total industrial production revenue. They also reach the export value of VND11.6 trillion ($500 milion).” — VNS