Economists attributed the figures to Vietnam’s abundant workforce and several incentives for investors. At the Vietnam Business Forum recently held in Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue reiterated the Vietnamese government’s policy of considering the foreign-invested sector an extremely important part of the Vietnamese economy.
Head of the MPI’s Central Institute of Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung said foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing into manufacturing and processing industry is a positive sign, helping Vietnamese firms access advanced technology.
Vietnam is in the period of golden population with over 6.3 million people of working age, giving the sector an edge to attract FDI. The large import of machinery, equipment and parts in the first ten months of this year reflected increasing investment in the manufacturing and processing industry, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
In the period, Vietnam imported 22.55 billion USD worth of machinery, equipment and parts while exporting only 8.29 billion USD of those products, resulting in a deficit of 14.26 billion USD. The General Statistics Office reported that the number of new firms in the manufacturing and processing sector rose 22.1 percent from the same period last year and their total registered capital went up 98.7 percent.
The sector also attracted a substantial amount of foreign direct investment, with 8.39 billion USD poured into newly-licensed projects. The import of computers, electronic products and parts in the ten months reached 22.7 billion USD while export of those products fetched only 14.79 billion USD, translating into a 7.91 billion USD trade deficit.
