HCM City (VNA)ღ – Ho Chi Minh City will pay more heed to support and high-tech industries, instead of labour-intensive projects, heard a meeting of the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (Hepza) on January 19.

Tran Viet Ha, head of the Hepza Investment Management Office, said the flow of investment in Vietnam’s garment-textile and footwear sectors is expected to increase, following Vietnam’s engagement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. However, he said, the city is finding it hard to employ workers for these sectors, especially garment-textile, which is seen as a labour-intensive industry. Therefore, local processing and industrial zones should focus on the support industry to serve the four essential sectors of electronics-computing, mechanics, chemicals and food processing, along with high-tech industries, he said. According to Ha, the southern metropolis aims to attract 700 million USD in 2016, nearly 140 million USD lower than the figure recorded in the previous year. Last year, a total of 840.7 million USD poured into HCM City, up 11.74 percent against 2014. Of the sum, foreign investment exceeded 553 million USD, up nearly 60 percent year-on-year, while local investment stood at 287 million USD, a decline of 29 percent over the year before. During the year, Hepza granted investment licences to 26 foreign and 62 domestic projects, with many in auto manufacturing and food production, which are considered the city’s spearhead sectors. Major foreign investors hail from the UK, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, France, the US, China and Australia, and are mainly active in garment-textile, food, chemicals, mechanics, rubber plastics and services. Meanwhile, domestic investors are interested in services, mechanics, food, chemicals, construction materials and electronics.-VNA