Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan has asked relevant departments, sectors and district authorities to continue creating favourable conditions to promote stable business operations and production in the city in the last months of the year.

In a meeting held in HCM City on October 27 to review the ten-month socio-economic development and key tasks for the rest of the year, Quan requested the management boards of industrial parks and export processing zones to simplify their administrative procedures, and develop and upgrade their infrastructure in an effort to attract more foreign-invested projects, especially in high-tech.

Quan said most economic targets have been met, with growth rates higher than during the same period in 2013.

In the first ten months of this year, the city’s industrial production value climbed to 6.8 percent, 0.9 percent higher than that during the same period last year.

In October alone, retail sales of goods and services were estimated at nearly 55.9 trillion VND (2.62 billion USD), up by 10.6 percent against October last year. For the January-October period, the retail sector recorded an increase of 12 percent in revenue to about 530.5 trillion VND (24.9 billion USD).

Meanwhile, import-export turnover over the last ten months hit nearly 28 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD), up by 8.87 percent compared to the same period last year.

The city took the lead in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), granting investment certificates to 332 new projects and allowing 107 others to increase their capital, with a total value of 2.9 billion USD, representing an increase of 97.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

Dao Thi Huong Lan, Director of the municipal Department of Finance, said the State budget reached 213 trillion VND (around 10 billion USD) in the reviewed period, accounting for 94.15 percent of the estimate for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of nearly 13.5 percent.

The programme to connect banks and enterprises, which aims to help businesses operating in the city to access loans, proved effective with the total assistance capital reaching 37.48 trillion VND (1.76 billion USD), 7.48 trillion VND (351.5 million USD) more than the target for the 10-month period, actively helping enterprises solve their capital difficulties.

In the remaining months of 2014, the city will focus on producing goods that will be in high demand on the occasion of New Year.

Promotional activities will be intensified and campaigns to encourage people to use locally produced goods will be run.-VNA