Enterprises must improve the quality and quantity of domestic tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, to increase their ability to participate in the supply chain and improve the localisation of domestic industrial products.

This is the opinion of experts who gathered at a workshop to further develop links between Vietnamese enterprises and multinational companies in the manufacturing industry.

The workshop was coordinated by the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in co-operation with the ASEAN - Japan Centre (AJC). It was held in Ha Noi on Monday.

Viet Nam is considered an emerging country with fast economic growth both in the region and the world. The country had a preliminary average annual economic growth of 5.95 per cent in the period 2011- 2020.

The achievements of industrialisation and modernisation have created a great foundation for socio-economic development, in which the manufacturing industry plays a particularly important role as the backbone of the economy and the driving force for growth in the country.

The manufacturing industry also attracts a large amount of foreign investment capital (FDI), which usually accounts for the highest proportion in terms of the number of projects and registered capital in the period 2011-2020.

Truong Chi Binh, vice president and general secretary of the Viet Nam Association For Supporting Industries, said that the Government, localities and many other organisations have supported the processing and manufacturing industry, promoting the development of enterprises and connected domestic and foreign enterprises.

However, the requirements of FDI enterprises on suppliers mainly revolve around quality, price, delivery time and technological factors.

The issue of price and management of Vietnamese enterprises was still not competitive compared with Chinese and Thai enterprises, said Binh.

Therefore, to help Vietnamese businesses participate more deeply in the supply chain of FDI, it is necessary to support them in improving their capacity through policies that encourage digital transformation and investment in electronic production, added Binh.

"We still do not have a strategy, specific mechanisms or policies for the electronics sector. Electronics is a matter of the future. It is necessary to encourage FDI enterprises to localise policies on tax and labour, to attract FDI with a clear orientation on localisation," she recommended. — VNS