After eight years Vietnam joined in the World Trade Organization, Ho Chi Minh City has reaped many significant achievements with spotlight being foreign direct investment (FDI), reported the city People's Committee at a meeting with a supervisory delegation from the National Assembly Standing Committee.
The meeting was held to review results from international economic integration achieved by Ho Chi Minh City.
The NA delegation was led by chairman of the NA Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau to work with the city People’s Committee.
HCMC has 4,800 valid FDI projects so far with a total capital of US$32.6 billion, leading the country.
Export turnover jumped up 3.6 folds over 2006 to reach US$32 billion last year. The turnover from industrial items accounted for 67.5 percent of the city’s total number except crude oil.
People’s Committee Deputy Chairman Tat Thanh Cang said that HCMC had developed a non-agricultural economy towards services-industry-then agriculture structure.
Added value of the service sector held the largest ratio in HCMC gross domestic product, hitting 60 percent in 2014. The number of workers in this field neared 66 percent.
Agreeing that HCMC has obtained many significant achievements, NA members still pointed out some issues.
According to statistics by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, only 30 percent businesses nationwide have been able to take advantage of incentives from free trade agreements.
Only large firms and some medium companies accessed integration information while 97 percent of businesses in HCMC were medium and small, said permanent member of the NA Ethnic Council Cao Thi Xuan.
She proposed associations to further promote their roles in information assistance to businesses so that they could grasp opportunities from the agreements.
