Summarizing socioeconomic conditions in October, director of the Department of Planning and Investment Su Ngoc Anh said that goods retail sales and services revenue were estimated to reach VND90,546 billion, up 1.7 percent over the previous month and 13.8 percent over the same period last year.
Export turnover hit US$3.2 billion, an increase of 3 percent over August. It was US$31.3 billion in the first ten months, up 7.1 percent over the same period last year. Without crude oil, the turnover was estimated to touch $29.2 billion, up 9.7 percent.
In industrial field, the city has organized a conference to announce the group of key products for businesses and agencies to have strategies and solutions to develop their industries or fields.
The retail market share of local firms has been reducing because of severe competition from global retail chains. Meantime, domestic products have found difficult to enter retail chains for failing to meet quality requirements. So Mr. Phong proposed the Department of Industry and Trade to organize a meeting between city retailers and producers to connect them together.
The city has committed to utmost supporting enterprises to do business and invest in the city and implementing policies starting from the reality of enterprises.
With the growth pace in the first ten months, Mr. Phong questioned if the city can achieve the growth target of 8.3 percent this year and prompted agencies and district to speed up.
Head of Statistics Department Huynh Van Hung said that the 8.3 percent growth rate requires services field to grow 8.45 percent, industry above 8 percent and agriculture 6.2 percent. Of these, the mission for services field in the fourth quarter is very heavy.
Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong assigned agencies concerning commerce and tourism sectors to have solutions to boost development and expand scale.
During the ten months, the number of international visitors arriving in HCMC reached 6.1 million, increasing 20.2 percent over the same period last year and accounting for 81.28 percent of the year plan.
Tourist revenue was VND112.64 trillion, raising 20.08 percent and making up 85. 98 percent of the year plan.
Director of HCMC Tourism Department Bui Ta Hoang Vu said that the city’s tourist industry could get the target of 7.5 million international visitors this year. An international marathon competition will be organized in December with the number of attendees expected to touch 8,000 to celebrate the 320th anniversary of Saigon-HCMC establishment.
Of these, Chairman Phong said the city has a big potential for tourist development but advertisement has been limited. Tourism is a synthetic industry requiring many agencies to join hands in creating new attractive tourist products, adding that the tourist department must study a overall master strategy for the city's tourism development.
