At yesterday’s meeting about the work in 2023 and the direction of activities in 2024 of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Business Associations (HUBA), Chairman of HUBA Nguyen Ngoc Hoa shared that in 2023, the association sent 133 proposals to remove difficulties in many areas of the business to city administrations.
Accordingly, many long-standing bottlenecks such as investment projects, the real estate market, and corporate bonds have been cleared. Many important and key national projects in the city with spillover effects were put into operation. Many projects of the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021 - 2025 have been accelerated.
On the other hand, businesses also encounter other difficulties because the world economy continues to fluctuate and the international environment is less favorable. Some markets are slow to improve, directly affecting domestic industrial production in general. Accordingly, production orders decreased, inventory increased, import-export turnover decreased and foreign investment attraction also decreased.
Many projects in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025 have been accelerated, but there are still many remaining that need to continue to be resolved. Many businesses have proposed city authorities create favorable conditions so that they can participate in bidding for public investment projects and receive loans from the stimulus program. Moreover, businesses suggested the city government should soon convert industrial parks and export processing zones and issue industrial park land prices to support investors in completing legal procedures and create conditions for receiving investment capital flows from foreign investors.
Furthermore, the city government should support interest rates for both investors and buyers as well as strengthen trade promotion activities while supporting businesses to promote green and digital transformation combined with building a shared database for each industry and field.
Last but not least, the city must build a set of green indicators and establish a market for carbon credits, solar power, and rooftop power to help businesses improve their competitiveness when participating in the global supply chain.
Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Vo Van Hoan said that if in the first quarter of 2023, the city's economic growth (GRDP) reached 0.7 percent while the fourth quarter of 2023 saw an increase of 9 percent, helping to raise the city's GRDP to 5.8 percent in 2023. This shows that businesses have been making a great effort to go along with the city's development. In the coming time, the city will focus on promoting green growth and digital growth solutions in all fields.
In particular, he revealed that the city will conduct audits and quantification of gas emissions as a basis for businesses and communities to carry out green transformation in 2024. Therefore, businesses need to have digital transformation and green production to adapt to this trend.
