A vehicle part factory in Hanoi's Dong Anh district (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Amid the complex COVID-19 situation, accelerating the disbursement of public investment is one of the focal tasks Hanoi will carry out in the remaining months of 2021 to achieve the best possible economic outcomes.
The municipal People’s Committee has demanded district-level People’s Committees take drastic actions to implement measures for promoting economic growth, public investment disbursement, and sustainable export in line with the Government’s Resolution No 63/NQ-CP, according to the Cong Thuong (Industry & Trade) newspaper.
The Hanoi administration asked all-level authorities and sectors to effectively manage and use the budget, reduce regular expenditure to increase local budget reserves, focus on COVID-19 prevention and control, and invest more in performing security - defence tasks and important and urgent activities of the city.
So far, Hanoi has disbursed just 31 percent of this year’s public investment capital assigned by the Government, lower than the rate in the same period last year and the national average.
Given this, the municipal People’s Committee requested leaders of agencies and localities to keep paying attention to the task while tackling difficulties and quickly completing procedures for the projects funded by public capital.
They need to speed up the disbursement progress so as to disburse 100 percent of the assigned public capital, the committee said, asking them to view the disbursement of public funds as one of the important solutions to fuel the city’s economic growth in the remaining months of 2021.
The People’s Committee of Hanoi has also identified some other focal tasks, including piloting the urban administration model, developing five suburban districts (Dong Anh, Gia Lam, Thanh Tri, Hoai Duc, Dan Phuong) into urban districts, and carrying out the Government’s Resolution No 97/NQ-CP, issued on August 28, on reducing power bills and prices for the fifth time since the start of the pandemic.
In August, many local businesses suffered from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many indexes declining from July and the same period last year.
Hanoi recorded about 1.28 billion USD in exports in August, down 0.7 percent month on month and 34.6 percent year on year. That added up to an eight-month turnover of over 9.78 billion USD, down 5.2 percent from a year earlier.
The index of industrial production (IIP) fell by some 8 percent from the previous month, with the processing and manufacturing sector down 8.8 percent, and electricity production and distribution down 2 percent.
Nevertheless, the index increased 6.3 percent year on year during the first eight months, statistics show.
Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue were estimated at 25 trillion VND (over 1 billion USD) in August, down 32.2 percent month on month and 51.2 percent year on year. The sum stood at around 349.5 trillion VND in the reviewed period, down 6.3 percent from the same period last year.
However, the capital city also recorded encouraging outcomes in several aspects.
The January - August State budget revenue was estimated at 164.48 trillion VND, equivalent to 69.8 percent of the target assigned by the Government and 110.3 percent of the figure in the same period last year.
The IIP of some industries still grew strongly during the eight months, including the production of motorised vehicles up 21.6 percent, apparel 18.2 percent, beverage 16.1 percent, timber processing and wood product manufacturing 10.9 percent.
Meanwhile, domestic revenue, except for oil, managed by taxation authorities increased 9.7 percent from a year earlier, with the revenue from production and business activities up 28.9 percent.
Amid complex developments of COVID-19, enterprises in Hanoi have made efforts to sustain operations. Many of them have applied the “three-on-site” model, which involves workers eating, sleeping, and working at factories and taking rotational leave.
Many districts have recorded good progress in public capital disbursement such as Thanh Xuan, Phu Xuyen, Ha Dong, Hoan Kiem, and Cau Giay./.
