A worker checks cotton fibre on a production line at Kyungbang Viet Nam's fibre factory. — VNA/VNS Photo Quach Lam

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The southern province of Binh Duong has set ambitious goals for accelerating local production and exports, as well as handling bad debts, in order to generate stable development for the province next year, said the province's chairman Le Thanh Cung.

Cung said Binh Duong was helping local businesses to overcome their financial difficulties and was working to promote trade and supply enough electricity for local production, particularly in key industries.

According to the State bank branch in Binh Duong Province, the province's bad debt currently totalled VND1.28 trillion (US$62 million), an increase of 16.5 per cent since early this year.

Mobilised capital continued to outweigh loans due to slow production. The figure was now at VND76 trillion, a savings of VND47 trillion ($2.2 billion).

The province's total outstanding debt reached nearly VND61 trillion ($2.9 billion) by the end of August, a year-on-year rise of 11 per cent that indicates that the gap had grown between mobilised capital and disbursed capital.

This large gap was attributed to local businesses' difficulties in maintaining and expanding their production, which in turn led to low disbursement.

The branch warned that many local businesses had halted their production or completely dissolved, which could burden the province's banking system with more bad debt.

Since the beginning of this year, about 244 businesses stopped production, a 34 per cent year-on-year decrease.

By August, local businesses owed VND170 billion ($8.1 million) in unpaid taxes, according to the Binh Duong Customs Department, meaning that the province's budget revenue fell short of the yearly target. Department representatives said that VND86 billion ($4.1 million) of the sum was unrecoverable.

Local tax authorities attributed the rising tax debt to the fact that 42 businesses were missing.

Despite the bad debt, industrial production in August showed signs of recovery, authorities said.

The Industry and Trade department said that the province's industrial production value had reached more than VND90 trillion ($4.29 billion), an increase of 12.3 per cent. FDI businesses took the lead, contributing more than VND60 trillion to the provincial budget.

The province's investment climate also improved, with investment capital of more than $1 billion over the eight months, fulfilling the set target. — VNS