Development strategy for Vietnam’s mechanical engineering industry

Last year, the sector’s industrial production value reached 11.8 billion USD, up 7 times compared to that in 2000. The export value increased nearly 35% against the sector’s total value. Also last year, the sector earned more than 13 billion USD from exporting mechanical products making the industry to become one of Vietnam’s important exports.

In recent years, Vietnamese mechanic enterprises have made progress in synchronizing equipment to supply for key industries including electricity generation, cement, sugarcane and sugar, paper and paper pulp, and fertilizer instead of only turning out manufacturing mechanical items.

The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group has recently put into operation a 90-meter jack-up drilling rig made by PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard Company. The move is considered a breakthrough of the sector. Lai Van Dam, President of Dong Anh Mechanics Company, said: “The success of manufacturing of machine and equipment is of significance for the domestic production, ensuring a better productivity and quality and increasing the competitiveness of Vietnamese products.”

Although Vietnam’s mechanics sector has made a giant leap in accessing new technologies, it hasn’t realized its target to meet up to half of the whole country’s demand for mechanical products. At a recent meeting in Hanoi to review 10 years to implement the development strategy for the mechanics industry, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said: “The strategy should be combined with a programming which needs to define products and areas to be prioritized to outline specific policies.

For example, we should prioritize the mechanical engineering in service of agriculture and fishery that have a great potential and market. The development of the strategy and programming should be put in next context – the market economy and international integration. Against the context of integration, the sector’s companies will not only have to compete right in the domestic market to replace imported products, but also improve themselves towards exports.”

The Prime Minister also asked the steering committee of the program on  key products to design policies which should bridge mechanic enterprises and state management agencies.