(VEN) - Low funding levels had failed to attract rural industrial businesses, creating a major barrier to rural socio-economic development, according to delegates attending an industry promotion conference featuring representatives from 28 provinces and cities in the north held in late October.
(VEN) - Low funding levels had failed to attract rural industrial businesses, creating a major barrier to rural socio-economic development, according to delegates attending an industry promotion conference featuring representatives from 28 provinces and cities in the north held in late October.
Increased funding
According to the Agency for Industrial Promotion, the total recommended funding plan approved in 2012 for 28 provinces and cities in the north was VND108.989 billion, up 27.97 percent compared to the previous annual plan, with the national funding accounting for VND44.485 billion, up 35.02 percent compared with the same period last year and making up 55.86 percent of the country's total industrial promotion expenditure.
By the end of September, all 28 provinces and cities in the north finished approving the local VND64.504 billion funding plans, up 23.51 percent compared with the same period last year, accounting for 45.56 percent of the country's total funding for industry promotion. Some localities were highlighted with the highest funding including Hanoi (VND13.699 billion), Nam Dinh (VND6.350 billion) and Thanh Hoa (VND6.02 billion).
From national and local industrial promotion fund, in the first nine months of the year, 28 provinces and cities invested in the local vocational training programs and job creation for 30,097 workers; business start-up training for 4,250 people; 34 production technical demonstration models and in technological transfer and application in production to 122 basis rural industrial facilities. 206 industrial development projects worth of VND5.677 billion also received consultancy.
Unmet funding levels
The Agency for Industrial Promotion's statistics showed that the local industrial promotion funding this year increased significantly. However, the speed of disbursement of the funding in the first nine months of the year was very slow and did not meet the proposed plans, with the disbursement for technical demonstration models only accounting for 54.49 percent of the plan, machinery purchases 51.24 percent, industrial product development 30.19 percent, and industrial consultancy programs 35.47 percent.
According to the local leaders, one of the reasons for those modest results was too low levels of funding for the approved plans, which meant they remained unattractive to involved rural industrial businesses, acting as barrier to industry promotion efforts and rural socio-economic development.
Deputy Director of Thanh Hoa Province's Department of Trade and Industry Le Trong Han said local workers were not interested in participating in vocational training with funding support of VND300,000 per worker per training course as the funding wasn't sufficient to make up for the time spent and the lost amount of hours they could spend earning money. It should be noted that the current levels of funding support for the training courses were only one third or one quarter compared to the levels approved by Decision 1956.
Deputy Director of Bac Giang Province's Department of Trade and Industry Phan Van Hung said the funding support levels for industry promotion plans had failed to meet local enterprise expectations. Specifically, each technical support demonstration model received just VND205 million at maximum in terms of funding while businesses must spend several billion dong. Too low funding support discouraged rural industrial businesses, not to mention a series of complex administrative procedures they had to complete before benefiting from the expanded projects. Therefore, rural industrial development could hardly be implemented without removing those barriers
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Nam Hai stressed the fact that local authorities need to increase funding support levels and properly adopt industrial development policies. Moreover, existing limitations such as inefficient industry promotion teams, outdated industrial vocational training facilities and low funding support levels should be removed immediately. He also requested the Agency for Industrial Promotion to quickly complete the circular guiding the implementation of Decree 45/2012/ND-CP, providing the legal basis for local policy development and funding level adjustment./.
