Processing-manufacturing driving Quang Ninh growth

The processing and manufacturing sector is continuing to serve as a key pillar for Quang Ninh province, simultaneously playing the part of a motivating force for its economic development.

The province’s economic zone leaders have worked with dozens of investors to promote its potential, Photo Do Phuong

In the past two decades, the processing and manufacturing industry has often contributed about 20 percent of the GDP of either developed or new emerging industrialized nations like China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore.

In Vietnam, the proportion of the processing and manufacturing industry in GDP has risen constantly from just 13 percent in 2010 to about 20 percent in 2020. On average, in the period 2011-2020, this industry accounted for 14.9 percent GDP of the whole economy.

In Quang Ninh, this industry has shown early development in the mining industry, accounting for a large proportion of the province’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) structure. The processing and manufacturing industry is small compared to the mining industry, but its value has seen constant growth.

Determining the key role of the processing and manufacturing industry as a driving force for local economic development, the first resolution issued by the 13th Party Central Committee for the 2020-2025 term underlined the rapid and sustainable development of the processing and manufacturing industry, with a vision to 2030.

Quang Ninh focuses on restructuring the processing and manufacturing industry to play a driving role in socioeconomic development; from there creating a breakthrough in investment capital attraction and raising added value for the industry; quickly increasing its contribution to GRDP and budget revenue; and attracting skilled, high-quality labor in parallel to securing a population increase in both size and quality.

The goal is that by 2025, the share of industrial construction in GRDP will reach 49- 50 percent, of which processing and manufacturing accounts for more than 15 percent; and industry added value grows an average of 10 percent per year, in which processing and manufacturing increases by 17 percent per year on average, luring in more than $2.17 billion and averaging $434 million per year.

In the first nine months of 2021, Quang Ninh’s GRDP expanded 8.6 percent, higher than the same period in 2020 which rose 8.5 percent. In which, the industry and construction sector took the lead, growing 11.6 percent against 8.9 percent one year ago, an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to the 9.8 percent projection, contributed 5.6 percentage points to growth and accounted for 53.9 percent of GRDP.

According to Nguyen Thi Hien, director of Quang Ninh Department of Industry and Trade, this result showed that industrial production has constantly taken the leading role, especially the processing and manufacturing industry, making important contributions to the province’s economic growth, and helping to offset the service and tourism sectors.

Quang Ninh’s index of industrial production in the first nine months of the year showed a 10.58 percent jump over the same period last year. The production index of the mining industry only expanded 1.67 percent on-year against a 37 percent jump in the production index of the processing and manufacturing industry.

Even in 2020 during the pandemic emergence, the industrial sector also made a great contribution to Quang Ninh’s GRDP and local budget. Particularly, the processing and manufacturing sector grew by nearly 17 percent and accounted for 9.8 percent of the province’s GRDP.

Hoang Trung Kien, director of Quang Ninh Economic Zones Management Authority, said that one of the important solutions to realize the goal of developing the processing and manufacturing sector is to rapidly develop economic zones (EZs) and industrial zones (IZs), create a driving force to spur investment attraction and development of the industry.

Quang Ninh’s IZs have lured sizable foreign-invested projects into this field. These include Foxconn Group’s multi-million dollar investment project at Dong Mai IZ in Quang Yen town, a medical instrument factory project valued at nearly $108.7 million, and a medical equipment factory complex valued at more than $87 million in Hai Ha district, to name but a few.

Newly attracted projects so far this year are almost exclusively in processing and manufacturing. In which, two projects by Jinko Solar Vietnam Technology are the most capital-intensive foreign investment projects worth nearly $900 million in the total committed capital in the province’s IZs and EZs thus far.