Ho Chi Minh City’s economy grows 7.76 percent in six months

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s gross regional domestic product grew by 7.76 percent in the first half of this year, higher than the same period in the past two years.

It was unveiled during a meeting of the municipal People’s Committee on June 15 to discuss the city’s socio-economic-cultural performance and the budget expenditure and spending in the first half of the year, and major tasks for the remaining months.

With this growth, the city is likely to fulfill the set growth of 8.4 – 8.7 percent this year, said Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong, adding that the total State collection hit 173 trillion VND (7.52 billion USD), or 49.5 percent of the yearly target.

The services sector grew 7.38 percent while industry and construction expanded by 7.17 percent and agriculture up 5.93 percent.

Pham Thanh Kien, Director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, said the six-month industrial development index rose 7.5 percent year-on-year, the highest in the past five years.

During the period, there were more than 18,000 new businesses with a total registered capital of upwards 227 trillion VND. The total registered and additional capital topped 492 trillion VND, marking a 2.2-fold increase annually.

The city also licensed 340 foreign-invested projects, mostly in the processing and manufacturing industries, which doubled the city’s capital attraction of the previous period in 2016 to 2.15 billion USD.

In order to achieve set targets this year, the municipal authorities asked departments and localities to clear obstacles to businesses by improving business climate, reforming administrative procedures regarding taxation and customs while perfecting start-up ecosystem and promoting start-up innovation.

The city will also promote programmes on supply-demand, business-bank connectivity, demand stimulation, and market stabilisation.-VNA