In the past, southern Ben Tre province has accelerated its economic structure transition with a focus on developing industry, trade, services and hi-tech agriculture. Last year, the local industry and trade sector made many positive results.
Industry is considered the province’s key sector in the near future. The provincial industrial production value has remarkably increased with high growth rates of many products such as coconut and seafood product processing. Ben Tre has paid attention to industrial park development. In 2008, it planned four industrial clusters namely Giong Trom, Binh Thoi-Binh Dai, An Duc-Ba Tri and Cho Lach.
The locality has also concentrated on clean industrial production under the Vietnam-Denmark cooperation. The programme aims to mitigate environmental pollution and limit the effects of industrial materials through commitments to build and boost clean production and information dissemination on the application of the production model.
The province’s trade sector has also gained considerable achievements. Last year, Ben Tre saw the record high export value of US$184 million, up 30.43 per cent on-year and surpassed 22.68 per cent compared the year target. In the year, the province exported 29,271 tonnes, up 71.63 per cent on-year, exceeding 8.41 per cent against the year target and accounting for 38.9 per cent of its total export revenue. Garment and textile export value reached US$10.773 million, up 92.31 on-year and up three folds compared to the year’s plan; Followed by were shell charcoal and desiccated coconut. Last year, local enterprises expanded their export markets. Their products are now in 12 countries despite gaining a modest value. The Asian market is the province’s big market, making up over half of its export ratio, followed by European markets of Russia, the Netherlands, and Portugal with 25.88 per cent.
This year, the industry and trade growth aims to be higher than last year through developing available resources and quickly implementing licensed investment projects. The province expects to gain total retail value of VND13 trillion, up 20 per cent compared to 2008. It will also concentrate on developing a retail network to ensure people’s production and consumer demand. Export revenue is hoped to climb to US$212 million, up 15.3 per cent on-year. Besides, local businesses will actively exploit existing markets and potential ones.
The provincial Industry and Trade Department Director, Duong Ngoc Duyen said, the Department will instruct the People’s Committee and concerned agencies to speed up infrastructure construction of Giao Long Industrial Park and residential area and An Hiep Industrial Cluster and prepare for new parks. Moreover, the province will attend to agro-fishery-forestry processing and assistance for enterprises to reform equipment, aiming to deepen their competitiveness.
Thanh Thao
Vietnamese
