Chairman of the People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City Phan Van Mai speaks at the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
On the evening of January 25, the City Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, and Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in HCMC held a meeting between city leaders and overseas Vietnamese.
On behalf of the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Phan Van Ma was pleased to welcome overseas Vietnamese who were present at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman Mai shared that when the Tet holidays ( the Lunar New Year) are approaching, anyone who is far away all wants to reunite with their relatives. However, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, many people couldn’t return to Vietnam for a reunion with their family members.
When the Covid-19 epidemic broke out in Ho Chi Minh City, people abroad were worried about the city in the most difficult, even heartbroken with the city at that moment.
Chairman Mai expressed that, with the tireless efforts of all people and the entire state machinery, central government’s support, agencies, sectors, and residents nationwide, especially those living abroad, the city has put the epidemic under control; thereby, it can organize spring celebration to welcome Tet and meet each other during Tet reunion.
Chairman Phan Van Mai gives flowers to outstanding people
On this occasion, the Chairman briefly reported on the results of 2021. In the midst of difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ho Chi Minh City also achieved remarkable highlights. First of all, the total state budget revenue reached VND381,531 billion, reaching 104.5 percent of the estimate.
Thanks to efforts to improve the investment environment, foreign direct investment reached US$7.38 billion, up 38.48 percent of total investment capital over the same period. Moreover, the amount of remittances to Ho Chi Minh City is over $6.6 billion and Ho Chi Minh City authorities have taken heed of digital transformation resulting in positive results.
In difficult conditions, Ho Chi Minh City administrations have paid special attention to social security, so residents’ living condition is stable overcoming difficult times when the fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic hit the city.
To get these results, the Chairman of the People's Committee highly appreciated the joint effort and help of each other to overcome difficulties, especially the assistance of Vietnamese people abroad.
HCMC Secretary Chief Nguyen Van Nen meets oversea Vietnamese at the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
HHCMC Secretary Chief Nguyen Van Nen meets oversea Vietnamese at the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
However, the outbreak of Covid-19 with the Delta variant has had a great impact on all aspects of life, economy, and society. A lot of city dwellers died of the coronavirus and many people were infected with it making negative impacts on the socio-economic development of the city that are difficult to overcome in a short time.
Specifically, Ho Chi Minh City's economic growth dropped sharply, down 6.78 percent, the deepest decline in more than 40 years.
Through the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders of the southern largest city realized that there are many big problems that need to be solved and overcome such as governance, economic structure, social issues, database, data connection, use data for administration, motivation issues for the development of Ho Chi Minh City in the upcoming time. These are very new and very big problems that pose many challenges to the city's administrators.
In 2022, the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that the city must presently overcome the consequences caused by the Covid-19 epidemic. Therefore, he expected Vietnamese people abroad to give solutions for the current problems.
At the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
In the new year, Ho Chi Minh City is determined to regain momentum to develop for the next years with the implementation of many solutions for socio-economic recovery and development. In which, the city has set out the theme of 2022 with four pillars.
Firstly, Ho Chi Minh City must ensure the prevention of the Covid-19 epidemic. Secondly, it will improve the quality of urban government, the investment environment. Thirdly, the city will continue to implement administrative reform to mobilize resources in the city, outside the city, including abroad. Finally, Ho Chi Minh City is determined to always accompany businesses to help them remove obstacles.
Specifically, Chairman Mai said that he has asked the districts and Thu Duc City, departments, and agencies to stronger administrative reform to better serve people and businesses. Ho Chi Minh City will review the remaining issues and bottlenecks and then establish working groups to solve each problem gradually.
In addition, it has applied information technology and promoted digital transformation for building digital government to make operations more transparent and effective.
Chairman Mai informed the city is implementing several issues; therefore, the city is looking forward to receiving many comments from overseas Vietnamese so that Ho Chi Minh City can complete the tasks effectively.
He added that Ho Chi Minh City has not been invested in culture and society commensurate with economic development; thus, in the coming time, overseas Vietnamese are expected to contribute their experiences to the fields as well as pour more investment in these fields.
At the same time, Mr. Phan Van Mai asked overseas Vietnamese to comment on the adjustment of the Ho Chi Minh City General Plan to 2040, with a vision to 2060. This is very important for the city to have the best quality planning. Regarding Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City focuses on perfecting the model and mode of operation so that Thu Duc City becomes the new development engine of the city.
Ho Chi Minh City has also been studying about building an International Finance Center. This is a new and difficult job for the city, so the city has to study and learn models from countries around the world.
The city has been proposing to have specific mechanisms for the operation of the center. Ho Chi Minh City is focusing on investing in traffic infrastructure, including ring roads 3 and 4, metro lines, highways connecting Ho Chi Minh City with other provinces in the region, and public transport with orientation towards smart traffic.
In addition, Ho Chi Minh City invests in digital infrastructure to serve digital transformation, building a shared database of the city and a smart city operation center. Mr. Phan Van Mai expressed that city administrations are really looking forward to the opinions of experts and businesses and overseas Vietnamese.
From the above key tasks, Chairman Mai hopes that overseas Vietnamese will continue to pay attention, give suggestions, and make plans to jointly build Ho Chi Minh City to develop, to become a dynamic city, a place worth living not only for city dwellers but for international friends as well.
The Chairman requested the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write down the opinions of overseas Vietnamese, businesses of overseas Vietnamese, or friends around the world that want to invest in Vietnam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular.
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City is committed to the most favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese and friends around the world to invest in the city.
On this occasion, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City awarded certificates of merit to groups and individuals of overseas Vietnamese who have made many contributions to Ho Chi Minh City.
