Accelerating industry promotion funding

The Agency for Regional Industry Development will strive to complete the annual industry promotion funding plan

Slow disbursement

In the first half of the year, the ARID funded more than VND103 billion for259 national industry promotion projects. To date, 75 percent of the funds has been assigned to localities, but just 25 percent of the assigned was disbursed. Some 16 projects worth more than VND9 billion remain unsigned, including 12 trade fair and exhibition projects and three cleaner production projects.

According to Doan Manh Truong, Head of the ARID’s Industry Promotion Funding Management Division, trade fair and exhibition projects are often organized in the third and fourth quarters of the year to avoid the rainy season in the north and the central region and bidding procedures usually take much time.

Therefore, the ARID has to choose the right time to sign contracts. Moreover, it may take up to a six-month time preparing and approving a project, so some beneficiaries cannot balance their corresponding capital for implementation. Some projects though non-approved were implemented and remained unsettled due to invoices and payment vouchers not made in the fiscal year.

Funding levels for cleaner production projects were not clearly specified, entangling the implementation. Localities implementing these projects had to wait for direction from the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Southern localities are waiting for the ARID’s guidance on how to implement cleaner production projects suspended over time.

ARID Deputy Director Do Minh Tram suggested that the ARID’s functional pisions quickly schedule the management of projects in order for related localities to get well-prepared. The agency staff should access beneficiaries to determine their difficulties and instruct them to effectively implement the project.

Accelerating industry promotion funding

At an ARID workshop to review industry promotion funding during the first half of 2016 and the plan for the second half of the year, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said industry promotion activities should be improved to achieve any higher level than the 25 percent rate recorded in the first half of the year.

In the second half of 2016, the ARID will need to take measures to boost national industry promotion funding, focus on vocational and startup training and management skills, provide market updates for rural industrial bases, capital and market development consultancy, and highlight rural outstanding products and artisans. In addition, the ARID should strengthen national industry promotion management to improve implementation effectiveness.

The ARID should rapidly adjust national industry promotion funding regulations to suit the current situation, conduct administrative reforms and provide guidance on the implementation of the Prime Minster-approved decision on industrial cluster development to attract investors, Hoang Quoc Vuong said.

Head of the ARID’s Industry Promotion Funding Management Division Doan Manh Truong said the pision will consult localities on Joint Circular 26/2014/TTLT/BTC-BCT stipulating national and local industry promotion funding management and use, and Circular 36/2013/TT-BCT stipulating national industry promotion funding planning, implementation and management. In the second half of 2016, it will cooperate with related agencies to adjust national industry promotion funding regulations. Sixteen pending projects will be revised and adjusted for feasibility and will be submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration. The pision will strive to fulfill the annual industry promotion funding plan.

Viet Nga