Time: 2020

By: Ministry of Industry and Trade, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, in partnership with The Republic of Korea

Viet Nam has experienced sustained and rapid economic growth over the last decade, which has mainly been driven by widespread growth in the processing and manufacturing sectors. Viet Nam recorded a moderate level of economic growth in 2018, with an annual growth rate of 7.1 per cent. The manufacturing sector continues to contribute significantly to the country’s economy with a growth rate of 13 per cent and has maintained a share of over 80 per cent of Viet Nam’s total exports in recent years. In light of its economic achievements, the Government of Viet Nam released the Strategy on Viet Nam’s Industrial Development Through 2025, With a Vision Towards 2035 (Decision 879/QD-TTg, 2014) and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam issued the Formulation for Developing National Industrial Development Policies to the Year 2030 With a Vision to 2045 (Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW, 2018).

Despite the considerable progress achieved in recent years, Viet Nam’s manufacturing sector still faces numerous challenges, such as low value-added products with low-skilled work and weak internal strength of the sector. The Government of Viet Nam recognized the importance of enhancing domestic value added, building institutional capacity and improving competitive sub-sector strategies. Accordingly, the Viet Nam Industrial Competitiveness Report (VICR) 2011 was produced with the support of UNIDO to identify key areas of intervention to boost the manufacturing sector’s industrial competitiveness.

As a continuation and expansion of the VICR 2011’s sub-sector industrial strategies, the White Paper Viet Nam Industry 2019 – Manufacturing and Subsector Competitiveness was produced to improve Viet Nam’s policy framework and to close the institutional gap in the ministries responsible for formulating, implementing and monitoring industrial strategy and policy by Vietnamese industrial policymakers with consolidated capacities.

The main focus of the White Paper is on four competitive manufacturing sub-sectors, namely food processing, textile - apparel and leather - footwear, electronics and the automotive industry, which were selected in consideration of the targets of Decision 879 and Resolution 23 and the analysis of the current status of Vietnamese sub-sectors. The key issues in each industry were researched and analysed in detail, including classification, the development of the industry, production and employment, trade, value chain analysis, market structure, dynamics and diversification, a comprehensive SWOT analysis, the strategic objectives of the industry and policy recommendations. The analyses of the four
sub-sectors were prepared by a task team consisting of Vietnamese officials from different ministries with the support of specialized industry experts.

The Publication is attached below: