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