Month: June 2023

The People’s Committee of Hanoi on June 30 inaugurated a C-shaped flyover connecting Chua Boc and Pham Ngoc Thach streets.

The flyover is expected to help reduce long-lasting congestions at the Chua Boc-Pham Ngoc Thach-Ton That Tung-Dong Tac intersection.

It has two lanes for cars and motorbikes, with a total length of 318m and a width of 9m.

Construction on the overpass took place in 10 months, at a cost of 147 billion VND (6.2 million USD)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

More than 163,000 labourers in Ho Chi Minh City found jobs in the first six months of 2023, up 0.21% year on year, while more than 79,900 new jobs were created, a rise of 0.25%, reported the municipal Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs.

In June alone, economic sectors in the city employed more than 26,500 labourers and created nearly 12,000 new jobs, with most jobs in the areas of trade, services, and industrial production.

Tran Le Thanh Truc, head of the Employment – Labour Safety Office under the city Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs said that in the first half of 2023, the city organised 59 online job fairs, providing employment consultations to more than 69,700 labourers and helping over 43,200 labourers successfully find jobs.

The department processed nearly 59,000 out of 64,000 requests for unemployment allowances, and issued 512 decisions to give vocational training support to unemployed labourers.

It also received information from 245,400 labourers who wanted to seek jobs, she said, adding that the department also gathered information recruitment demands of 42,800 local businesses.

In the Jan-June period, HCM City sent more than 3,900 labourers to work abroad, 1,000 cases higher than that in the same period last year, mostly to Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan (China).

In the period, nearly 7.639 foreign workers in the city received work permits, down nearly 900 from the same period last year, the department reported./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh City’s economy showed significant improvements in the first half of this year, especially in retail, services and tourism, heard a meeting held by the municipal People’s Committee on June 29.

Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai reported that the city’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the six months grew some 3.55% year-on-year, with services making the lion’s share of 89%.

Total revenue from retail sales of consumer goods and services reached some 561.73 trillion VND (23.8 billion USD), a rise of 7.1% from the same period last year, while that of tourism was 80.83 trillion VND, up 62.7%.

Meanwhile, the industrial and construction sector still met difficulties and inched up only 0.8%, contributing 5.1% to the GRDP growth. During the reviewed period, the local index of industrial production (IIP) increased 1.9% year-on-year.

For the four key industries of pharmaceutical chemicals, mechanics, electronics and food and beverages, the IIP went up 4.5% in the reviewed period.

The city has assigned and allocated more than 68.49 trillion VND in public investment, with nearly 15 trillion VND sourced from the central budget, and the remainder from the local coffer.

The State Treasury in HCM City reported that as of June 23, the country’s southern biggest economic hub disbursed 10.24 trillion VND worth of public investment, with important transport projects launched in the period.

As many as 22,463 enterprises were established in the first two quarters with a total registered capital of 207.77 trillion VND, up 7.7% in volume, but down 19% in value.

The accumulative registered and additional capital amounted to 448.38 trillion VND, a year-on-year decrease of 14.7%.

At the meeting, the Department of Planning and Investment warned that the local economy is expected to encounter a host of challenges in the second half due to global economic uncertainties.

Given this, Pham Binh An, Deputy Director of the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, suggested the city quickly roll out the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 98 2023/QH15 on piloting special mechanisms and policies for development of HCM City, speed up the planning work, promote public investment, improve the local investment environment, and launch stimulation programmes.

Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, forecast that the city’s economic growth will hover around 7% in case of favourable conditions, and urged departments and agencies to boost public investment, public procurement and consumption stimulation, and remove obstacles to exporters./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

All economic sectors should actively implement drastic and synchronous measures to promote growth and overcome difficulties in the rest of the year, aiming to complete this year’s target of 6.5% in GDP growth, according to General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong.

Huong said that although the GDP growth rate of 3.72% recorded in the first half of this year was lower than expectation, it is a suitable level in the context of the current global economic situation with complicated and unpredictable developments as well as fierce strategic competition among world powers.

She was of the view that the goal of 6.5% growth that Vietnam has set for this year is a tough one as market demands have yet to rise and orders remain few.

The expert underlined that in order to promote economic growth in the rest of the year, it is necessary to maintain macro-economic stability and rein in inflation, along with close monitoring of the international economic and financial situation, while evaluating its impacts on the manufacturing sector in order to make timely response to support production activities.

It is crucial to harmoniously coordinate micro-economic policies and ensure balance between inflation control and development, interest rate and exchange rate, as well as between balancing the budget and supporting people and businesses, and among public and investment, foreign direct investment and private investment amid a slow increase in private investment compared to the remaining channels, she said.

Huong also stressed the need to speed up the disbursement of public investment and remove obstacles during the implementation of public investment plan in a timely manner, thus creating motivations for growth. Alongside, it is necessary to improve the business and investment environment, reducing administrative procedures to take advantage of opportunities from the shift of supply change, promoting domestic and foreign investment, raising productivity and reducing production and business cost, she added.

In addition, the GSO leader noted the necessity to effectively implement measures to stimulate demand in trade and services as well as tourism promotion programmes and solutions to diversify export markets and products.

She also advised businesses to seek new customers, strengthen connectivity between production and selling chains and optimise production activities./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency