HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee settargets and approved operational orientations and solutions for this year forits industrial and trade sectors at a recent meeting.

They include 5 percent growth in industrial production, with its four keyindustries (food processing, pharmaceutical chemicals-rubber-plastic,mechanical engineering, and electronics) growing by at least 6.7 percent.

The targets for growth in retail sales of goods and services and exports are 10percent, Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the city Department of Industry andTrade, said.

Non-financial targets include improvements in administrative procedures forbusinesses and the public, he said.

His department would adopt comprehensive solutions to achieve the targets, helprevive the city’s economic growth and create a major transformation in itseconomic structure so that the services sector accounts for over 60 percent ofthe economy.

It would envisage and carry out solutions that enable the city to maintain itsleading role in the country in terms of the economy and innovation, he said.

With respect to administrative reforms, it would enhance the use of IT inadministration, he said.

Phan Thi Thang, vice chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, hailed theachievements of the industrial sector in 2020, saying it had greatlycontributed to the city’s achievement of its dual goals of fighting theCOVID-19 pandemic but also sustaining socio-economic growth.

She urged the department to speedily achieve administrative reforms andimplement two promotion programmes that would attract local and foreigntourists and make HCM City a major shopping centre in the country.

The city would prioritise easing administrative procedures to facilitatebusinesses’ functioning, she added./.