HCM City (VNA) – This year, Ho Chi Minh City will continue torestructure the economy, improve competitiveness and labour productivity, andmeet the city’s State budget target as set by the Government.

Speaking at a meeting on January 6, Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of themunicipal People’s Committee, said the city last year maintained strong growthand would continue this year to implement major projects, including the smartcity plan and the creative urban area in the city’s eastern part (Districts 2and 9).

A pilot project to develop an urban administrative model for more efficientgovernance will also be launched, he said.

The city will also focus on significant problems such as traffic congestion,traffic accidents, flooding, and environmental pollution, as well asclimate-change adaptation and training of high-quality human resources, headded.

Last year, most of the city’s key economic sectors, especially the servicesector, grew significantly compared to 2018, he said. “The city also managed toresolve complaints of residents in many areas.”

The city’s labour productivity in 2019 was nearly three times that of the wholecountry (299.8 million VND per person, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2018),Phong said, adding that the city’s budget revenue exceeded 3.3 percent of thetarget for the year.

In addition, the implementation of National Assembly's Resolution 54, whichgives more autonomy to the city to speed up development, saw positive resultsin 2019.

The city’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2019 reached more than 1.34quadrillion VND, an 8.32 percent increase year-on-year, he added.

Ho Chi Minh City has set a target of achieving a growth rate of 8.5 percent for GRDP in2020, with total private investment accounting for 35 percent of GRDP.

This year, the city also aims to create 44,000 new businesses, creating 135,000new jobs.

The total number of international visitors to the city reached 8.5 million in2019, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent with sales up by 14.5 percent over2018, according to Phong.

In addition, the city in 2019 attracted 8.3 billion USD worth of foreign investment.

Ho Chi Minh City has also set a target in 2020 to achieve 100 percent of budget revenueset by the Government, which is one of its major goals for this year.

Also speaking at the meeting, Le Ngoc Thuy Trang, Deputy Director of the city’sDepartment of Finance, said the Government this year set a target of budgetrevenue collection for the city of 405.8 trillion VND (17.55 billion USD), up1.68 percent compared to 2019, accounting for 26.5 percent of the country’stotal budget revenue.

Of the figure, domestic budget revenue would be 278.6 trillion VND, up 2.3 percentcompared to the estimate in 2019.

To achieve the goal, the city will improve corporate financial management,accelerate the equitisation and divestment of SOEs, and closely monitor taxcollection from enterprises.

The city will also use the revenue from the transfer of land-use rights as wellas transfer of State-owned houses and land.

It will also focus on recovering and auctioning the land that investors havenot used to prevent wastefulness.

According to Trang, to improve the use of the State budget, the city needs torestructure the operation of State-owned enterprises and call for more privateinvestment.

Trang proposed that the city review all investment projects and focus on urgentprojects, which should be submitted to the city People’s Committee to arrangefor capital.

The city will also focus on accelerating the progress of ODA (official developmentassistance) projects in the city./.