This was highlighted at the Supporting Industries Forum held in HCMC on Wednesday within the framework of the expos Metalex Vietnam and Nepcon Vietnam 2012 slated for October.

Tran Ngoc Phuong Hang, director of Phan Sinh Company, supplier of chrome and nickel plated products to Japanese producers, said: “Despite operating in supporting industries, we are struggling all by ourselves. We have received nothing from the supporting industries development policy of Vietnam, be it taxes or lending rates.”

Speaking to the Daily on the sidelines of the event, Hang said the factory of her company is located in District 9, HCMC. Phan Sinh intends to relocate it to an industrial park to raise the capacity by two or three times to meet the surging demand of Japanese producers active in HCMC, Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

However, the State has not provided the company any support, whether it is land rentals, lending rates, infrastructure development or corporate income tax.

Many businesses shared the same view, saying there have been many positive changes in the macro policies, but these policies have yet to come into practice.

Decision 12/2011/QD-TTg on developing certain supporting industries released on February 22, 2011 is considered the first commitment of the Government to supporting industries.

Still, so far supporting industry enterprises have been given no support, said Nguyen Duong Hieu, chairman of Lidovit Trading and Industrial Joint Stock Company. He questioned which ministries would put the decision into actions so that businesses would enjoy incentives.

Other supporting industry firms complained they had great difficulty expanding the production scale due to sky-high lending rates, three times or even five times higher than in other countries.

Pho Nam Phuong, director of the HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Center, noted businesses had the same questions as the HCMC People’s Council delegates. Many delegates raised questions about development of the HCMC supporting industries at the council’s meeting in mid-July.

Phuong remarked the city was also struggling to find a direction for development of supporting industries.

Meanwhile, Le Huong Giang, deputy director of the Southern Foreign Investment Center, said she would report to the authorities at higher levels about the opinions of businesses.

Speaking at the forum, Hiroyuki Mizunoe from the project for supporting industry development under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) stressed Vietnam was now less competitive than other countries in the region in terms of attracting investment from Japan due to the lack of supporting industries.

Vietnam must strive to overcome ASEAN nations like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia first, before aiming at higher rivals being China, Taiwan and South Korea, said Mizunoe

The biggest weakness of Vietnamese enterprises is that they have yet to adapt to the harsh competition environment, making it hard for supporting industries to develop, he emphasized.

According to Japanese businesses, if Vietnamese small and medium enterprises can improve their skills, plus lower production costs, they will soon gain better competitiveness.

Source: SaigonTimes