A Government delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh reviewed Ho Chi Minh City 's socio-economic performance in the last three years and discussed goals for the next two at a meeting in the city on August 30.

Ninh, who was apprised about the city's good economic performance, said however that the administration has to be more pro-active to achieve the targets set for the next two years.

According to the municipal People's Committee, averaged economic growth in the last three years was 9.5 percent, almost twice the country's average rate.

Ninh described HCM City as the economic driving force for not just the region but the whole country, with revenues reaching 624 trillion VND (29.7 billion USD), or 30 percent of the country's total amount.

But it needs to help businesses overcome their problems and speed up the restructuring of State-owned enterprises in the city, he said.

He wanted the city to work with the State Bank to deal with bad debts and liquidate the property market inventory.

Despite the challenges, the city had achieved impressive results, he added.
Ninh hailed the city government for its successful efforts to stabilise the economy and ensure social welfare in the last few years.

Despite the achievement of the last three years, the city leaders admitted that the quality of growth has been modest and the economic potential has not been optimally exploited.

HCM City has seen good signs this year with stable socio-economic growth in the first eight months of 2013. According to the municipal People's Committee, the city saw retail sales and services turnover rising 12.2 percent year-on-year to 389.3 trillion VND (nearly 18.4 billion USD) in the first eight months of 2013.

Industrial production grew 5.5 percent in the first eight months, compared to 4.2 percent during the same period in 2012.

As of 20 August of this year, HCM City had granted licenses to 260 new foreign direct investment projects with a total capital of 587.7 million USD, up by 0.43 percent compared with the same period last year.

HCM City has announced plans to achieve an annual economic growth of 10-10.5 percent and per capita income of 4,800 USD in 2015.-VNA