Prime Minister: Develop infrastructure, remove difficulties for production and consumption of construction materials

On the morning of June 15, concluding the online conference on removing difficulties and promoting production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested restructuring of organization, administration, finance, and input materials at enterprises and promoting infrastructure development, increasing demand for construction materials and developing a sustainable construction materials industry.

Contributing 11% of national GDP, but facing difficulties

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at a conference to promote the production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

According to the Ministry of Construction, in the past 10 years, the total production capacity of key construction materials in Vietnam has grown to about 120 million tons of cement, 830 million m² of tiles, 26 million sanitary ceramic products, 330 million m² of construction glass, 20 billion fired clay bricks, and 12 billion unfired bricks (standard). The quality of Vietnam's construction materials is guaranteed to meet international standards. The level of technology, production organization, business, and environment of Vietnam's construction materials industry ranks among the top in ASEAN countries. The total annual revenue value of the construction materials, cement, and steel industry is estimated at nearly 47 billion USD (accounting for about 11% of the national GDP). However, in recent years, the construction materials industry in our country has encountered many difficulties, with both consumption output and revenue decreasing, leading to stagnation in production and business activities of enterprises, job losses for many workers, affecting the economic and social development of the country. At the Conference, leaders of central ministries and branches; provinces and cities; associations and enterprises focused on assessing and carefully analyzing the production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials in recent times; clarifying the reasons for the sharp decline in consumption of cement, steel and construction materials from 2023 to present; proposing key and breakthrough tasks and solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, in order to promote the production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials. Delegates said that the cement, steel and construction materials industry is facing difficulties due to increasing production input prices, scarce production materials and pressure on environmental protection, climate change, investment in waste treatment, CO2 reduction, increasing production costs, while there is no support policy. In particular, delegates said that the main reason is still the decline in domestic consumption and exports... Based on the analysis, delegates proposed to promote public investment, build transport infrastructure, irrigation, invest in developing urban and rural infrastructure, national defense and security projects, marine and island projects to serve the development of the marine economy; remove difficulties for the real estate and housing market; strongly implement the Project to invest in building at least 01 million social housing apartments; Building reinforced concrete overpasses for expressway projects, especially in areas requiring flood drainage, weak soil areas and areas lacking embankment materials; increasing the use of cement soil reinforcement technology in road construction; having appropriate mechanisms and policies on taxes and fees; financial incentives... to support the cement, steel and construction materials industry; enterprises need to proactively have production and business plans; control imports, promote exports... Concluding the Conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated and commended the efforts and congratulated the remarkable results of the cement, steel and construction materials industry achieved in recent times, especially the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry and Trade as the focal agencies implementing the Strategy for the development of cement, steel and construction materials in Vietnam. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pointed out a number of shortcomings, limitations, difficulties, obstacles and causes in the production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials such as fuel costs, raw material supply for production, pressure on environmental protection, policy mechanisms, market, financial situation, etc. In order for the cement, steel and construction materials industry to develop sustainably, promote efficiency and make important contributions to socio-economic development to ensure the growth target for 2024, the Prime Minister directed ministries, local branches and relevant agencies to continue to effectively implement the Strategy for the development of Vietnam's construction materials for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050; Planning for exploration, exploitation, processing and use of minerals for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, as well as promote the progress of implementing public investment projects and infrastructure projects; Project to invest in 1 million social housing apartments...

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh with delegates attending the conference on removing difficulties and promoting production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

The Prime Minister emphasized the viewpoint that the development of the cement, steel and construction materials industry must closely follow reality, respect reality, take practical effectiveness as a measure; promptly respond to emerging policy issues, difficulties and challenges in the development process; organize implementation to be drastic, strong, focused, key, and complete each task. The development of the construction materials industry must ensure efficiency, sustainability, basically meet domestic demand, increase exports; access and apply scientific, technological and management achievements, especially the Fourth Industrial Revolution in production; improve product quality; diversify high-quality product types with high economic value, meeting construction needs. Along with that, use resources economically and effectively, save energy, raw materials and fuel in production; exploit and use minerals economically; make maximum use of waste and scrap from industries for the production process; Minimize the impact on the environment; promote and encourage economic sectors to participate in investing and developing cement, steel, and construction materials; distribute the network of production facilities nationwide in accordance with the natural and social conditions of each region. Promote infrastructure development, increase demand for construction materials Regarding key tasks and solutions, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches, localities, enterprises, and associations to review mechanisms and policies on the development of the cement, steel, and construction materials industry; be proactive and creative, respond quickly to the situation; closely monitor and enhance the capacity to forecast domestic and foreign impact factors to have proactive and timely response plans to support cement, steel, and construction materials businesses to stabilize production and expand the market. At the same time, promote public investment, build transport and irrigation infrastructure, invest in developing urban and rural infrastructure, national defense and security projects; marine and island projects serving the development of the marine economy; removing difficulties for the real estate and housing market; resolutely, promptly and effectively implementing solutions to promote the safe, healthy and sustainable development of the real estate market; strengthening the implementation of the Project on investment in the construction of at least 01 million social housing apartments for low-income people and other housing construction programs and projects. The Prime Minister directed to increase the selection rate of using reinforced concrete overpasses for expressway projects, especially in areas requiring flood drainage, weak soil areas and areas lacking roadbed materials such as the Mekong Delta; increasing the use of cement soil reinforcement technology in road construction to improve the quality and life of roads, while using domestic cement sources; increasing the use of cement concrete roads for the construction of rural and mountainous roads and roads in areas with frequent flooding; reduce imports, improve product quality, reduce costs, increase competitiveness of domestic products.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a conference to remove difficulties and promote production and consumption of cement, steel and construction materials. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

For businesses, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested restructuring of organization, administration, finance, and input materials; investing in upgrading and in-depth renovation of technology and equipment of existing construction material factories to reduce production costs, save energy, natural resources, and protect the environment; investing in power generation systems that utilize excess heat in the production of construction material products, especially in clinker and cement factories, for use in production, reducing electricity costs.

Enterprises need to invest in using waste to replace fuel, using industrial waste to replace natural resources to reduce raw material and fuel costs in production, lower product prices; invest in cement grinding stations in areas with convenient transportation, seaports, with sources of mineral additives for cement, with sources of ash, slag, gypsum emissions, etc. Enterprises increase domestic consumption of construction materials through implementation in large projects, public investment projects, irrigation construction works, natural disaster prevention and control, etc. as well as households building and repairing urban and rural houses; review the sales agent system; cut down on departments and intermediate stages from the factory to customers consuming the products; review and reduce appropriate sales costs; search for, expand markets, promote the export of construction material products to many countries around the world. “Construction material enterprises, especially cement enterprises, must not lower their selling prices below the cost of their products and ensure fair competition,” the Prime Minister noted. The head of the Government also requested enterprises to restructure their capital sources and reduce costs to ensure cash flow to repay bank loans and costs of input materials, fuel, labor and other costs in production; not to use short-term capital sources to invest in medium- and long-term investment portfolios; to proactively discuss with banks to defer and extend debt and have a plan and roadmap for debt repayment to ensure safety for production and business activities; to use capital sources to pay off old high-interest loans and borrow new low-interest loans to reduce financial costs. To resolve institutional difficulties for the cement, steel and construction materials industries, the Prime Minister assigned the State Bank of Vietnam to review, evaluate and amend regulations on debt forgiveness, debt extension, and interest rate reduction for debts of construction materials enterprises to suit the current capacity to fulfill financial obligations. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Construction to develop and issue specific incentive policies for cement factories and other construction materials factories when using alternative fuels from waste and using alternative raw materials from industrial waste such as ash, slag, artificial gypsum, etc. in cement production; strictly regulate the responsibility of waste source owners in paying for transportation and treatment costs of waste, ash, slag, gypsum, etc. to be used as fuel and raw materials in cement production and production of other construction materials. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance to propose tax policy adjustments to ensure competitiveness with other exporting countries, while being consistent with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on not imposing export taxes on goods with countries that have signed the Agreement. Assigning the Ministry of Construction to study and propose re-establishing the Cement Sector Planning to supplement the Law on Planning (amended) in the coming time, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Construction to study and implement trade defense measures, anti-dumping measures for imported ceramic tiles, sanitary porcelain and construction glass, ensuring compliance with the provisions of free trade of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Ministry of Transport directs investors to use reinforced concrete viaduct solutions for expressway projects, especially in areas requiring flood drainage, weak soil areas and areas lacking roadbed materials such as the Mekong Delta, to minimize the amount of sand used for embankment, ensure construction progress with good quality, long life, reduce maintenance costs over time, reduce environmental impact, and at the same time, it is also an effective "dual" solution to consume domestic cement sources. The Prime Minister directs ministries, branches and localities, cement, steel, construction materials enterprises and related entities, according to their functions and tasks, to focus on implementing key tasks and solutions to handle and remove difficulties, promote production and consumption of cement, steel, and construction materials in 2024 and to develop the cement, steel, and construction materials industry in the coming time.

Pham Tiep (Vietnam News Agency)

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chinh-tri/thu-tuong-phat-trien-ha-tang-thao-go-kho-khan-cho-san-xuat-tieu-thu-vat-lieu-xay-dung-20240615121006167.htm