HCMC Printing Industry: Time to Transform

In the publishing, printing and distribution industry, the printing industry has always been the leader in revenue every year. However, from accounting for 65% of the national printing industry revenue more than 10 years ago, the printing industry in Ho Chi Minh City now only holds about 50% of the market share. This is posing significant challenges for the printing industry in Ho Chi Minh City, especially in the digital and green transformation process.

Risk of relegation

In a recent workshop on “Digital Competency Framework for the Printing Industry” organized by the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City, Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Anh Tuan, Vice President of the Vietnam Printing Association, President of the Ho Chi Minh City Printing Association, pointed out the fact that, while in the past, the field of publishing printing accounted for 65%-70% of the printing industry, now this number is only over 10%.

“The world printing industry has long been divided into three distinct segments with different management policies: publication printing, commercial printing, and industrial printing. Meanwhile, our management policies mainly focus on publication printing management.

Thus, with the decline of the publishing printing sector, we are currently only able to manage more than 10% of the entire printing industry, while commercial and industrial printing are left empty, without specific policies to support. That is also the main reason why the printing industry lacks strong development, especially for the printing market in Ho Chi Minh City", Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Anh Tuan shared.

Workers of Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper Printing Company check finished products before delivering to customers.

In addition, it is a fact that Chinese enterprises have been and are moving to Vietnam. However, we do not have any support policies, specifically for the industrial printing sector. Therefore, except for export enterprises, most Vietnamese printing enterprises do not have enough capacity to access the shift of goods volume from China to Vietnam, leading to a lot of wasted opportunities.

“The production structure of the printing industry is gradually shifting from Ho Chi Minh City to Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces to serve the industrial production needs here. In the North, large Chinese factories are also opening up, creating great opportunities for industrial printing units to develop strongly. If there is no quick change, the city's printing industry will face the risk of being pushed out of this industrial printing market,” said a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Printing Association.

Required

Many experts believe that the printing industry in the country in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular are taking advantage of good opportunities such as Vietnam has signed and is participating in 19 bilateral and multilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with most economies in the world.

In addition, the printing industry is considered a supporting industry, present in most industries, almost every product has the imprint of the printing industry. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City, said that there is still a lot of room for the development of the printing industry in Ho Chi Minh City.

“To turn this development potential into practical benefits, the printing industry in Ho Chi Minh City must step into the global market. The printing industry is considered a supporting industry, and must have a foothold in the global printing supply chain to be able to reach out to the world,” said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi.

In particular, according to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, in the coming time, the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City will create conditions for the Ho Chi Minh City Printing Association to participate in fairs and exhibitions in the region as well as in the world to gradually promote and advertise the city's printed products to the world.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoi added: “According to the assessment of the Ho Chi Minh City Printing Association, even in Southeast Asia, our printing industry is only ranked 4th, not to mention the global scale. This shows that if we stop, do not transform, do not have policies for promotion and development, we will fall even further. The journey of digital transformation is not easy, but we are in a situation where we are forced to do it.”

Not only participating in digital transformation, but now, a mandatory requirement for the printing industry is to participate in green transformation to have the opportunity to access a wide open and potential market for mutual development.

Explaining this, Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Anh Tuan said: “Green transformation is part of the theme of sustainable development, and to do so, we must ensure two factors: continuously innovating technology to produce at low cost and consume less energy than other businesses.

In addition, from 2024, in order to cooperate with international businesses, the printing industry will also be forced to comply with strict requirements on environmental protection.

“The Prime Minister has approved the National Strategy on Green Growth for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050. Enterprises wishing to participate in the global supply chain are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions according to the roadmap set out in the strategy. Foreign organizations will base their decisions on that roadmap to cooperate. To do business with them, we must minimize the impact on the environment during the production process, as well as use modern equipment and machinery to reduce energy consumption to the lowest level to be environmentally friendly,” Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Anh Tuan emphasized.

HO SON

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nganh-in-tphcm-den-luc-phai-chuyen-minh-post763083.html