Hanoi (VNA)꧒ – Production and business activities of domestic enterprises have shown positive signs of recovery. Many enterprises have obtained orders for the second or even the third quarter of 2024.

The recovery not only contributes to boosting growth for the industry but also realizes economic development goals in the coming months. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, industrial production continued to thrive in the first quarter with the entire sector’s added value rising 6.18% year on year. The increase contributed 2.02 percentage points to the growth of the economy’s added value. In the first quarter, industrial production expanded across the country, with 54/63 localities witnessing an increased index of industrial production (IIP). Notably, some localities experienced two- to three-digit IIP growth, such as Tra Vinh (102%); Khanh Hoa (37%), and Bac Giang (23.9%). Along with the development of industrial production, the number of workers in industrial enterprises as of March 1, 2024 rose by 1.3% from last month and 1.1% compared to the same period last year. Bui Huy Son, Director of the MoIT’s Department of Financial Planning assessed that the strong growth of industrial production has created more jobs, increased income and boosted consumption in the country. For an economy with an openness of up to 200% like Vietnam, industrial, processed, and manufactured goods posted an export turnover of 79.6 billion USD in the first quarter, accounting for 86% of the country’s total export revenue and 17.5% higher than that of the same period in 2023. The recovery helped bring the trade surplus to more than 8 billion USD in the first quarter, increasing foreign exchange reserves, and stabilising exchange rates and other macroeconomic indicators. Dr Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economic and Policy Research, University of Economic and Business under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said production in industries such as steel, fertilizer, seafood, textiles, and basic materials increased in March. This reflects the rapid recovery and shows that sectors providing inputs for production and business are recovering strongly. "These sectors will create very good momentum, an indicator for growth in the following quarters, especially the processing and manufacturing sectors, are showing many signs of positive recovery," he said. Economic expert Nguyen Anh Duong, head of Research Department at The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the demand for Vietnamese goods has improved. In the last four months of 2023, the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was below 50, but in the first two months of 2024, the index increased to 50.3-50.4. “Although the increase is modest, it still signals that demand for Vietnamese goods has expanded. Meanwhile, demand is decreasing in major markets and only rising in Southeast Asia and Asia. It means that Vietnam’s business and production achieved positive results," Duong said. Despite good results in many industrial production sectors, especially key export industries, the inventory index of the processing and manufacturing industries is increasing. Moreover, Vietnam’s export and import activities still depend much on specific markets. Therefore, in the second quarter and those following, it is necessary to promote the disbursement of public investment capital and review backlogs to soon put into operation key projects in power generation, oil and gas, processing and manufacturing, and mining. The MoIT will concentrate on implementing the master plans of the energy and mining sectors, calling on investment for key energy projects which create drivers for industrial production growth in the coming time./.