HCM City (VNA) - HCM City authorities have urgedthe city’s Department of Planning and Investment to propose solutions toachieve a Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) of between 8.4 and 8.7 percent this year.

Su Ngoc Anh, director of the department, said the city had setambitious targets this year, including establishing 50,000 new firms and havinginvestment represent 35 per cent of GRDP.    

The city also plans to shift 25,000 family-run businesses intoregistered enterprises, speed up equitisation of State-own companies, andimprove co-operation with surrounding localities to expand the market.

Anh recommended that the city work with agencies to review andgive priority to essential projects. The city should also closely monitorconstruction projects, he said.

The city will offer incentives for enterprises to invest underpublic-private partnerships, especially in the city’s seven designated“breakthrough” programmes: human resource development, administrative reform,growth quality, competitiveness improvement, traffic congestion and floodingcontrol, and cityscape rehabilitation.

Anh said the department would also assist enterprises in resolvinghurdles, including shortening the time to register businesses.  

In addition, it will set up a comprehensive information system tohelp businesses, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, to invest inthe support industry.

Vo Van Hoan, head of the Office of the People’s Committee, saidthe department should create better linkages among sectors and agencies toensure consistent policy in licensing investment certificates.

The director of the city’s Department of Home Affairs, Truong VanLam, has asked the Department of Planning and Investment to closely oversee theoperation of businesses after they receive investment certificates.  

Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee,urged the Department of Planning and Investment to develop a master plan forthe city.

Because of the city’s limited budget, the department must useinvestment carefully, with priorities given to projects in the sevenbreakthrough programmes, he said.

For other projects, the department must diversify investmentmodels and seek investment from many sources in society, he said.

He also urged the department to complete a database on enterprisesand work with agencies to develop sectors with high added value, especially theservice sector.

The city has 290,000 enterprises. Of these, 36,000 wereestablished in 2016, with 39.8 per cent in real estate and 18.7 per cent intrade and retail.

But only 175,000 firms are actually operating, while the rest haveeither suspended operations or moved out of the city.

The seven breakthrough programmes were approved last year bydeputies of the 10th meeting of the city’s Party Congress.

The programmes are expected to benefit residents and businesses asthey deal with pressing issues such as flooding, traffic congestion, saltwaterintrusion, air pollution and complex bureaucracy.-VNA