Speaking at a meeting with overseas Vietnamese ahead of the Lunar New Year Festival, Mr. Nhan said that the group comprising HCMC Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs and agencies must listen to difficulties and suggestions of overseas Vietnamese and them quickly and efficiently.
The meeting was attended by the secretary, chairman of HCMC People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong and over 800 overseas Vietnamese from 26 nations and territories.
Professor and Dr. Dang Luong Mo, overseas Vietnamese in Japan, said that he was excited seeing HCMC has developed in many fields despite limitations in infrastructure because of fast population increase.
According to Mr. Mo, infrastructure development is always a priority in such a large city like HCMC. He agreed with the direction of developing HCMC into a smart city and proposed the city to make efforts to relaunch IC development program in the phase of 2013-2020 after a long time of stagnancy.
Mr. Peter Hong from Australia, standing deputy chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Abroad, said that returning to the fatherland is the special happiness of every overseas Vietnamese in the lunar New Year Festival. Their return luggage is the strong participation in investment, trading and science-technology transfer to develop HCMC and the country.
Mr. Danny Vo Thanh Dang from Singapore said that after leaving the country, he realized a return desire which he believed of not only him but also other overseas Vietnamese. Setting himself up in business abroad, he really experienced the nostalgia for the homeland.
Analyzing overseas Vietnamese’s advantages, Mr. Danny said that one of the advantages of overseas Vietnamese especially the youth is professional knowledge acquired from all over the world and wide vision. Hence, they are always quick and proactive in implementing projects to get results at the fastest.
Despite much reform, administrative procedures sometimes become barriers for young overseas Vietnamese who want to return to Vietnam. He suggested a stronger action from city agencies to remove the barriers and an increase in connectivity, sharing and cooperation to develop the community of overseas Vietnamese business people in the city.
Informing of the city’s socioeconomic development at the meeting, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that gross regional domestic product (GRDP) grew 8.3 percent to reach VND1.33 quadrillion last year.
The city has been implementing Resolution 54 of the National Assembly on piloting specific mechanism for the city’s development and gained some positive results.
In addition, the city has issued policies to lure talents, experts and scientists. At present, it is carrying out innovative district project in the east of the city and renewing management method basing on the platform of digital and knowledge economy.
He affirmed that the community of overseas Vietnamese plays significant role to the city’s achievements. In 2018, 424,000 overseas Vietnamese entered the country through Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Notably, they came back to not only visit their relatives but also invest and trade contributing much to the city’s development.
In 2018, they remitted over US$5 billion to the city and 70 percent of the overseas remittance ran into production and trading. For years, over 400 overseas Vietnamese intellectuals have been back to work in Vietnam for a long time, nearly 200 have performed research cooperation and about 3,000 businesses have been invested by overseas Vietnamese with the total capital of VND45 trillion.
HCMC appreciates the sentiment and efforts by overseas Vietnamese to the country, affirming that overseas Vietnamese always accompany the country and the city’s development, he said.
He hoped that overseas Vietnamese will continue promoting patriotism and national pride, attending in developing and protecting the country and the city in 2019, he added.
Smart city development
Speaking at the meeting, secretary of the city Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan said that HCMC is now focusing on building smart city project in association with electronic and telecom development and industry 4.0. The city is preparing for the launch of 5G network and striving to take the lead in creating smart end-products. It has also implemented smart education, smart traffic, smart health and smart management.
Referring to decades long traffic jam and flooding, Mr. Nhan blamed the issue to forecast ability limitation. Therefore, when building smart city, the city has paid heed to forecast by building a simulation center for socioeconomic forecast and traffic management. The city population increase of one million every five year has created labor source advantage but resulted in pressure on traffic infrastructure, garbage treatment and fresh water supply.
Seeing weakness in timely forecast for infrastructure development, the city has been repairing it. Of these, the municipal authorities have built metro lines, developed public traffic network and launched bus rapid transit routes to solve traffic jam. Short term solutions comprise building of flyovers, ring roads and smart parking lots and applying of smart traffic management model.
In 2019, the city will focus on administrative reform with breakthrough efforts to better serve residents. With 10 million population, HCMC has determined its core development which is innovative district covering District 9, Thu Duc and 2. The area is home to 12 universities, 5,000 lectures of doctoral level, 10,000 students, two new urban areas and high-tech park. The city is preparing for design of the innovative district.
On the occasion of the meeting, the city People’s Committee gave certificates of merit to 19 overseas Vietnamese business people and intellectuals for well performing overseas Vietnamese mobilization in the phase of 2016-2018. From February 2-25, the city will send delegations of domestic artists to Thailand, Germany, France and Belgium to perform to serve overseas Vietnamese who can not return the homeland for Tet celebration.
