The disbursement of public investment capital in Ho Chi Minh City is still very slow. According to the set target, HCMC must disburse 30 percent of the total capital by the end of the second quarter, but so far it has not even reached the target for the first quarter.
At this afternoon’s meeting on the city's socio-economic situation in May, Chairman Phan Van Mai of the city People’s Committee who chaired the meeting requested participants to focus on discussing, analyzing, and resolving difficulties and obstacles in production and business activities to help enterprises.
The Chairman noticed that the disbursement progress of public investment capital in HCMC is still very low. According to the set target, HCMC must disburse 30 percent of the total capital by the end of the second quarter, but so far it has not even reached the target for the first quarter (nearly VND10,000 billion or US$ 393,189,230).
The Chairman of HCMC People's Committee requested meeting participants to analyze and clarify the specific bottlenecks of each project, such as the Rach Xuyen Tam canal project and the closure of the Ring Road 2 to have a solution for the disbursement problem in June.
Chairman Mai said that the disbursement speed is very worrying. In April and May, related agencies must disburse from VND3,000 billion to 4,000 billion each week whereas the actual volume is only about VND 200 billion to VND300 billion.
Talking about administrative reform, as the HCMC People's Committee organized a conference to analyze the results of administrative reform in 2023, the Chairman requested to clarify the outcomes and solutions that have been proposed at the prior conference. According to him, there is still a lot of backlog of work because the coordination between departments and agencies is still very slow.
Chairman Phan Van Mai also suggested reviewing the contents of the implementation of the Resolution 98/2023/QH15 to deploy early.
A representative from the HCMC Statistics Office revealed that the Industrial Production Index (IIP) for the industry in the 5 months continued to grow by 5.3 percent compared to the same period when reporting on the socio-economic growth in May and the first 5 months of the year. This is the highest growth rate in the past three years showing that industrial production activities are recovering. The production index of four key industries in general in the first 5 months of 2024 increased by 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
Total state budget revenue is estimated to have been implemented at VND 229,418 billion, reaching 47.5 percent of the plan and increasing by 14.3 percent compared to the same period. Revenue from all economic sectors witnessed an increase, contributing to domestic revenue increasing by 25.3 percent; however, revenue from crude oil saw a decrease of 14.7 percent and revenue from import and export decreased by 8 percent. Local budget expenditure is estimated to increase by 2.7 percent; yet, regular expenditure decreased by 3.5 percent compared to the same period.
As of May 24, the total amount of capital from the state budget that has been disbursed is VND 6,705.2 billion, reaching 8.5 percent of the 2024 capital plan. It is estimated that by the end of May, the disbursement will reach VND10,895.2 billion, reaching 13.7 percent of the plan and increasing by 18 percent compared to the same period while the disbursement reached VND 9,230.3 billion in the same period of 2023, reaching 13.1 percent of the plan).
In the past time, HCMC has focused on resolving site clearance problems, unlocking resources, finding solutions to overcome the shortage of sand; closing sections of the Ring Road No.2, speeding up the deployment of the Ring Road 3, completing the trial operation of Metro line 1 and proceeding to complete the handover of the site for the Metro line 2 project.
Upon business registration, as of May 20th, 20,245 businesses have been registered in Ho Chi Minh City with a total registered capital of VND172,954 billion. This represents an 8.7 percent increase in the number of businesses and a 3.3 percent decrease in registered capital compared to the same period last year. Moreover, total foreign direct investment in Ho Chi Minh City reached US$ 948.9 million, down 17.1 percent from the same period last year.
Revenue from trade and services in Ho Chi Minh City continued to grow in May, with an abundance and diversity of goods. Nevertheless, revenue from the tourism and travel sector declined slightly compared to the previous month.
In the first five months of 2024, estimated retail sales of goods reached VND 219,344 billion, up 9.3 percent from the same period last year. Some groups with high growth rates compared to the same period include household utensils and equipment at 19.1 percent, wood and construction materials at 11.3 percent, and gemstones, precious metals, and products at 31.4 percent.
To boost purchasing power in the market in the second half of 2024, a promotion program – ‘Shopping Season’ will be launched in Ho Chi Minh City in 2024 from June 15 to September 15, and from November 15 to December 31.
The CPI in May 2024 increased by 0.13 percent compared to the previous month. In the first five months, the CPI increased by 3.24 percent compared to the same period last year. The post and telecommunications group decreased by 4.03 percent while the remaining groups all increased, with the highest increase being the group of medicines and medical services with a surge of 7.75 percent, the education group with 7.48 percent due to the adjustment of tuition fees for the school year 2023-2024. The transport group also witnessed an increase of 5.25 percent due to the increase in gasoline prices by 7.28 percent from December 2023 to the present.
