While presiding the conference on the city’s socio-economy in August and first eight months of the year yesterday, Chairman Phong said that the city has well implemented preventative measures; as a result, more than 40 days, there has been no community transmission case of Covid-19.
He also urged departments and local administrations to accelerate construction projects to welcome the 11th city’s Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.
Simultaneously, the city has set up a team to provide assistance to enterprises affected by the pandemic. Generally, the city economy has sign of recovery thanks to its utmost efforts.
One of missions the city has done well is public investment disbursement. Till now, a total of nearly VND21,300 billion (US$920,602,318 ) was disbursed for public construction projects, accounting for 50 percent of the plan.
He assigned the Department of Planning and Investment in collaboration with other related state competent agencies to remove hiccups along the way so that investors can beef up the projects.
However, Mr. Phong noted that departments and agencies should do more in public investment disbursement because disbursement of public investment would help stimulating economic growth and would help lift gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross Regional Domestic Product.
Local administrations have been facing difficulties in disbursing public investment because of site clearance as they had to wait for the HCMC land price appraisal committee’s decision.
When it comes to key tasks in September and early October, 2020, Chairman Phong directed agencies and administrations in districts to inaugurate some construction works and accelerate the pace of other construction works to welcome the 11th city’s Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.
Specifically, he requested fir inauguration of tunnel in An Suong intersection on September 19, of street To Ky, steel bridge An Phu Dong, of Mien Dong (Eastern) Bus Station on October 10 and a section of the Tumor Hospital as well as groundbreaking of the Center for Creative Startup on September 30.
Before, reporting the socio-economic situation in eight months of the year, Director of the city's Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai said that the total retail sales of consumer goods and consumer services in August were estimated to reach more than VND105,200 billion, a decline of 5 percent compared to the same period last year and total sales in eight months are about nearly VND827 trillion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3 percent.
Though the coronavirus pandemic affected the country and the world, its total export revenue in eight months is around US$28.4 billion, mostly exports of vegetables, computer set, and electronic parts. The city’s Index of Industrial Production data or IIP in eight months climbed by 2 percent while four key industries reportedly hiked by 2.5 percent, said Ms. Huynh Mai.
Electronic product and component sector saw the high growth rate of 18 percent thanks to stable consumer market while chemical-rubber-plastics rose by 9 percent and the food, beverage processing sector hiked by 1.5 percent whereas the mechanical sector was down 10.5 percent because their foreign partners have been affected by Covid-19, so they stopped orders.
Furthermore, Ms. Mai said that 26, 500 enterprises in HCMC have registered to set up their business with total capital of VND562 trillion while 21,300 other business establishments ceased their operation. Due to the resulting travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s tourism industry was significantly impacted; therefore, tourism revenue in August and in eight months were around VND7 trillion and VND47.4 trillion , a drop of 43 percent and 48 percent respectively.
