HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s economyshowed significant improvements in the first half of this year, especially inretail, services and tourism, heard a meeting held by the municipal People’sCommittee on June 29.

Director of the municipal Department of Planning andInvestment Le Thi Huynh Mai reported that the city’s gross regional domesticproduct (GRDP) in the six months grew some 3.55% year-on-year, with servicesmaking the lion’s share of 89%.

Total revenue from retail sales of consumer goodsand services reached some 561.73 trillion VND (23.8 billion USD), a rise of7.1% from the same period last year, while that of tourism was 80.83 trillionVND, up 62.7%.

Meanwhile, the industrial and construction sector still met difficulties and inched up only 0.8%, contributing 5.1% to the GRDPgrowth. During the reviewed period, the local index of industrial production(IIP) increased 1.9% year-on-year.

For the four key industries of pharmaceuticalchemicals, mechanics, electronics and food and beverages, the IIP went up 4.5%in the reviewed period.

The city has assigned and allocated more than 68.49trillion VND in public investment, with nearly 15 trillion VND sourced from thecentral budget, and the remainder from the local coffer.

The State Treasury in HCM City reported that as ofJune 23, the country’s southern biggest economic hub disbursed 10.24 trillionVND worth of public investment, with important transport projects launched inthe period.

As many as 22,463 enterprises were established in the first two quarters with atotal registered capital of 207.77 trillion VND, up 7.7% in volume, but down19% in value.
 
The accumulative registered and additional capital amounted to 448.38trillion VND, a year-on-year decrease of 14.7%.

At the meeting, the Department of Planning andInvestment warned that the local economy is expected to encounter a host ofchallenges in the second half due to global economic uncertainties.

Given this, Pham Binh An, Deputy Director ofthe HCM City Institute forDevelopment Studies, suggested the city quickly roll out the National Assembly’sResolution No. 98 2023/QH15 on piloting special mechanisms and policiesfor development of HCM City, speed up the planning work, promote publicinvestment, improve the local investment environment, and launch stimulationprogrammes.

Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, forecast thatthe city’s economic growth will hover around 7% in case of favourableconditions, and urged departments and agencies to boost public investment,public procurement and consumption stimulation, and remove obstacles toexporters./.