The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants to create a boost for the manufacturing industry of Vietnam. Photo: Luong Bang

MoIT, thus, has proposed a new law, the Law on Industrial Development.

Although guidelines and policies on industrial development have been available, industrial development has not met the requirements of the country’s industrialization. Vietnam has not made good use of the advantage of the golden population and of being a latecomer in industrialization. The country is facing the risk of de-industrialization too soon and is in a disadvantageous position in the face of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The Resolution of the 13th Party Congress in 2021 sets out orientations and targets for the development of the processing and manufacturing industry in the country’s process of industrialization and modernization. By 2025, the proportion of the processing and manufacturing industry in Vietnam’s GDP will reach over 25% (16% at present).

Despite the important role of the processing and manufacturing industry, the MoIT said that so far this sector has no specific law, like other sub-industries, covering it.

This leads to a lack of legal framework for management and solutions to support this area from the central to local levels and between relevant ministries and agencies. Policies and guidelines have not been effectively institutionalized for the processing and manufacturing industry and the country's industrialization and modernization in general.

Development strategies and plans for specific sub-sectors (electronics, textiles, footwear, automobiles, tobacco, paper, ...) have been approved, but they are not legal documents, so enforcement mechanisms are absent. Therefore, relevant agencies have spent a lot of time and effort to propose strategies and plans, which have not been implemented.

The Ministry said that a separate law with specific mechanisms is needed to promote the development of the processing and manufacturing industries.

When this proposal was made, some commented that it is necessary to re-evaluate the need for a law on industrial development, because the field is already managed by many laws. More laws are unlikely to solve the current problems of the manufacturing and processing industries, they said.

An official from MoIT’s Department of Industry told VietNamNet that the proposal will certainly be controversial because there are already many laws on industrial development. But he said that the Law on Industrial Development is different from other laws on industry, such as the Law on Electricity, the Law on Petroleum, and the Law on Chemicals, among others.

“Previously, the laws in Vietnam's industrial sector were mainly of a state management nature, and there were no development solutions in them. The Law on Minerals is about management and licensing. Same goes for the Law on Chemicals and the Law on Oil and Gas,” he said.

Therefore, creating a law on industrial development will be different. That is, it will reduce the state management function, and at the same time promote development and create conditions for society to participate in the industrial sector.

"The Law on Industrial Development restricts the issuance of licencing," he said.

Under this law, if an agency fails to reach the goals on industrial development, it will be punished.

Luong Bang

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