After 2023, facing a series of difficulties, challenges, and fluctuations from both outside and inside, Ho Chi Minh City reached the finish line with a growth index of 5.81%, lower than the set target of 7.5-8%.
However, the entire political system, people and business community of Ho Chi Minh City had to be determined and make great efforts to revive and increase growth momentum in the last quarters of the year to achieve that index. These efforts are even more evident when looking back at the first quarter of 2023, when the locality only grew by 0.7%, the lowest among the five centrally-run cities.
In an interview at the time of welcoming the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024, Mr. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said that the city continues to set a growth rate of 7.5-8% in 2024. This is a very challenging goal for Ho Chi Minh City when 2024 is forecasted to have many unpredictable fluctuations.
"The city sets such a challenging goal and is determined to achieve it. That goal is also consistent with the development orientation in the Resolutions assigned by the Politburo," the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee emphasized.
Sending a message on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2024, the head of the city government hopes that people, businesses, and agencies in the political system will unite, be proactive, and be creative to be ready to accelerate. The city only has one year left to reach the goal of the term in 2025.
In 2024, the city continues to set a high target with a growth rate of 7.5-8%. What plans does Ho Chi Minh City have to achieve the expected growth rate in a year that is forecast to have many challenges?
- In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City has set a growth target of 7.5-8%, which is a very challenging target. However, this target is consistent with the development orientation of Resolution 24 on socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Southeast region and Resolution 31 on the direction and tasks for Ho Chi Minh City's development set forth by the Politburo.
The city is also determined to achieve that growth target with many solutions from the beginning of the year.
Specifically, the city has developed growth scenarios for each quarter. From the beginning of the year, growth promotion measures have been implemented. In addition to the three basic growth drivers of investment, consumption, and export, Ho Chi Minh City also pays attention to new growth drivers through the implementation of Resolution 98 to pilot a number of specific mechanisms and policies.
The locality also promotes new business models to attract social investment in infrastructure, science and technology, develop strategic investment sectors, consume in new forms and support export markets.
In fact, with the above measures, Ho Chi Minh City's basic indicators increased in January. For example, industrial production increased by 26.9% over the same period; retail sales of goods and services increased by 24.4%; import and export increased by 23.3%; public investment disbursement also increased by 3.2 times compared to January 2023. Thanks to that, the city's budget revenue reached 16.7% of the yearly plan in January.
This year, Ho Chi Minh City continues to regularly update growth scenarios to supplement measures, and at the same time build monthly scenarios for some key contents. This helps the management work to be closer to reality.
In addition to strengthening existing growth drivers, the locality also pays attention to new drivers such as digital economy, green economy, science and technology, and strategic investment sectors and professions.
In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on administrative management and reform to improve public service efficiency, remove difficulties and promote common activities to bring about good growth.
In 2023, Resolution 98, which pilots a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City, will officially take effect and is expected to create institutional breakthroughs, helping the locality attract resources. What will the city do to make the most of the opportunities from Resolution 98 this year?
- For Ho Chi Minh City, Resolution 98 is a very important tool to unlock resources and promote investment. Moreover, the resolution also helps the city proactively resolve procedures faster, promoting the strengths of the organization and staff.
In particular, the city focuses on mechanisms to remove obstacles in planning and investing in projects under the form of public-private partnerships (PPP) in the fields of transportation, health, education, culture, and sports. At the same time, policies on developing science and technology and innovation are also implemented synchronously.
For difficult mechanisms and policies such as TOD (urban development based on public transport axis) or carbon credit market, we will continue to research and propose new mechanisms. In addition, the city continues to pursue mechanisms for the International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City or the project to develop the urban railway system until 2035, infrastructure development tasks that require mobilizing large capital sources.
When studying Resolution 98, the locality applied Conclusion 14 of the Politburo on the policy of encouraging and protecting dynamic and creative cadres for the common good to solve long-standing problems. This helps Ho Chi Minh City both overcome difficulties and unlock resources to promote development.
These are the key tasks related to Resolution 98 that Ho Chi Minh City will focus on in 2024.
In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City will be allocated a record high amount of public investment capital. What lessons will Ho Chi Minh City draw and what important content will it focus on so that public investment disbursement is no longer a bottleneck?
- In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City has the task of disbursing 80,000 billion VND of public investment capital, accounting for 21.6% of the total social investment capital in the area (370,000 billion VND). This is a large amount of capital, a very heavy task, but if done well, public investment will contribute greatly to growth.
Ho Chi Minh City has been very proactive in disbursing public investment this year. Up to now, we have decided to allocate capital to all investors and organize a conference to deploy tasks for 2024. In the first week after Tet holiday, the city will hold the first public investment meeting of the year to review and update the implementation of tasks.
With that initiative, the public investment disbursement results in January this year were nearly 3.2 times higher than in January 2023.
Through experience from previous years, we have identified a number of issues in public investment disbursement. First, investors must plan to disburse all allocated capital, closely monitor each project, and report, coordinate, and resolve any issues that arise.
Procedures for public investment projects must be shortened compared to general regulations and site clearance, compensation and resettlement support need to be focused.
In addition, capital management needs to closely monitor the situation to adjust when necessary. For example, if a project is not disbursed in time, it must be adjusted. The city has prepared medium-term projects to promptly replace and adjust capital when needed.
These are the comprehensive measures we have focused on since the beginning of the year with the determination that this year, Ho Chi Minh City will disburse the highest results in the 80,000 billion VND of public investment capital assigned.
Recently, the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City have repeatedly mentioned adjusting the spirit and responsibility of agencies and units in the issue of public investment disbursement. How will this adjustment be implemented?
- At the conference to deploy the task of public investment disbursement in 2024, we talked a lot about the sense of responsibility of the parties involved.
First of all, the investor must be responsible for firmly grasping the tasks, planning the implementation of tasks, and the implementation plan for each project and each construction.
Next, departments and branches need to be responsible for appraising related contents and coordinating the handling of documents and procedures. The requirement is that public investment projects need to reduce 30% of the time to carry out procedures compared to general regulations.
Finally, it is the responsibility of districts and towns in site clearance, compensation, and resettlement support. Localities need to know how many projects, areas, households, resettlement land funds, and resettlement apartments need to be cleared this year. If any problems arise, districts and towns need to report to the working groups for easy monitoring.
We have very specific regulations and decisions on coordination to evaluate results. Through monthly meetings, the city will evaluate whether the parties are ensuring progress, where there are problems and who is responsible. The city will handle responsibility monthly and quarterly depending on the level.
In addition to Resolution 98, digital transformation is also mentioned by Ho Chi Minh City in the theme of 2024. How determined is the city to achieve this goal?
- Ho Chi Minh City's working theme for 2024 is " Determination to effectively implement Digital Transformation and Resolution No. 98 of the National Assembly ". In digital transformation, we will focus on digital economy, digital government and digital society.
With the inclusion of the annual theme, Ho Chi Minh City is determined to create new steps forward, building important foundations for digital transformation and building a smart city. In particular, the city will focus on developing a shared database, connecting with the national database.
In 2024, the city will focus on developing land databases, building and promoting the population database of Project 06.
Regarding infrastructure, Ho Chi Minh City will increase investment in equipment for agencies to ensure smooth operations. At the same time, shared application platforms for the entire city will also be developed synchronously.
This year, the locality will operate the city government's administrative enforcement platform. One example is the Citizen software - a communication channel between people, individuals, organizations and the government.
Next, the city focuses on training human resources in the short and long term for businesses and society. Along with that is the research on policies to support digital transformation for the city, develop digital transformation businesses, new business models, attract social investment for digital transformation and build a smart city.
Finally, we promote the strengths of the newly established City Digital Transformation Center. This will be a powerful tool, helping the digital transformation process take place more quickly and effectively.
At the conference on promoting investment for green growth development in Ho Chi Minh City, you mentioned the goal that by 2030, the city will reduce emissions by 10%. What will Ho Chi Minh City do to make this happen?
- Green development is a trend that the world is following and will also be inevitable for the economy of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, since 2020, Ho Chi Minh City has issued a plan including 56 programs and 30 projects to realize this goal, aiming to reduce emissions.
Recently, Ho Chi Minh City also issued a strategic framework on green growth until 2030. It is expected that by mid-2024, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will complete it to submit to the City People's Council to issue a green growth policy framework.
We will focus on reducing emissions in the transport sector by encouraging people to use public transport and switching from polluting vehicles. In production, the city will reduce emissions through converting production technology and applying a circular economic model.
In terms of behavior, the city will research green construction, green tourism, and green consumption. At the same time, the locality also aims to switch to using clean, energy-saving energy and solve problems related to wastewater and waste treatment, and save input sources for production and daily life.
This is a huge task, requiring a lot of time, resources and of course the participation of the community and businesses. We really hope that, in addition to the State's policies, businesses will also invest and people will also change their awareness and behavior to join hands in the green transformation process of the city.
Ho Chi Minh City also hopes to cooperate with international organizations to have more resources, helping this process take place faster and more effectively.
On the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2024, as the head of the city government, what message do you have for the people and businesses in the area?
- 2024 is the time when Ho Chi Minh City needs to accelerate to reach the finish line. I hope that the people, the business community, and local agencies will work together to promote the results achieved in 2023. The city needs solidarity, dynamism, and creativity to focus on implementing tasks right from the beginning of the year.
The city is also determined to achieve and exceed the targets and tasks of 2024. This will help Ho Chi Minh City continue to develop to be ready to reach the finish line in 2025.
Thank you sir.
Source link
Comment (0)