The national industry promotion programme in the next period would focus more on creating breakthroughs for the rural industries . — Photo congthuong.vn

The national industry promotion programme is set to focus more on creating breakthroughs for rural industries in enhancing productivity, quality and competitiveness of industrial and handicraft products, according to an official.

Luu Duy Dan, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Craft Village, made the statement at a conference on Wednesday to review the results of a national industry promotion programme in 2014-18 that it was necessary to boost large-scale production and build value chains for rural industries.

In addition, the production of raw materials must be linked to processing and distribution on the basis of bringing into full play regional advantages to meet market demand, Dan said.

He added that support needed to be provided to production expansion and competitiveness enhancement in domestic and foreign markets.

A representative from Ha Tinh Province Centre for Industry and Trade Promotion said most firms in the central provinces were small with limited capacity and needed support to expand production and markets.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the national industry promotion programme will continue to support technology transfer and bring advanced machinery for rural industrial production facilities.

Focus would also be placed on enhancing consultancy capacity to develop rural industries nationwide.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the national industry promotion programme contributed significantly to boosting rural industries in the past five years, which accelerated the transition of the country’s economic restructure towards industrialisation and modernisation.

Notably, job training helped reduce poverty, create jobs and increase industrial production in rural areas, Tuan Anh said.

Still, Tuan Anh pointed out problems in the national industrial promotion programme. The limited budget for the programme, estimated at some VND130 billion per year for 63 provinces and cities affected the efficiency of the programme while many localities did not pay adequate attention to the programme and could not attract capital from other sources.

Tuan Anh said the programme must be renovated to boost efficiency, quality and competitiveness amid rapid international integration.

The funds from the programme should be used efficiently to create a momentum for raising other sources of investments in developing rural industries, the ministry said.

According to Ngo Quang Trung, director of the ministry’s Agency for Regional Industry and Trade, the programme provided job training to more than 18,000 labourers in rural areas, more than 90 per cent of them had stable jobs after receiving the training.

The agency is developing the national industry promotion programme for 2021-30. — VNS