Concluding the meeting, the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City highly appreciated the efforts of the entire city in continuing the positive economic recovery momentum in the first 8 months of the year. The index of industrial production (IIP) of the entire industry is estimated to increase by 2.2% compared to the previous month and by 8.5% compared to the same period last year.

Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue is estimated at VND105,800 billion, up 12% over the same period. Total state budget revenue is estimated to increase by more than 15% over the same period and reach 71% of the annual estimate.

However, Ho Chi Minh City leaders expressed concern that there are still major limitations that hinder the city's growth.

Specifically, the first concern - according to Mr. Phan Van Mai - is that public investment disbursement is still a major limitation. Up to now, Ho Chi Minh City has only disbursed 18.1%. Mr. Mai said that Ho Chi Minh City has set a very strict monthly disbursement target and has commitments from each investor.

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Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Phan Van Mai speaks at the meeting. Photo: TTBC

The city leaders specifically named four major city project boards whose disbursement did not meet previous commitments.

Specifically, in August, the Management Board of Traffic Construction Investment Projects committed to disbursing 590 billion VND, but by the end of the month, only 86 billion had been disbursed; the Management Board of Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Projects committed to disbursing 111 billion, but only 31.4 billion had been disbursed; the Management Board of Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Projects committed to disbursing 153 billion, but only 60 billion had been disbursed; and the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railways committed to disbursing 119 billion, but only 32 billion had been disbursed.

Accordingly, the city leaders requested the above 4 departments to review and update their monthly, quarterly and project plans to achieve a disbursement rate of 95% by the end of the year as per the set target. Any department facing difficulties must achieve a disbursement rate of 90% or higher.

The second limitation that Mr. Phan Van Mai mentioned is that the number of businesses withdrawing from the market is still high and the city's capital absorption is still low.

Third, the market purchasing power has not reached the city's potential. Fourth, the city is facing a measles epidemic.

With these limitations, the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City requested relevant units to specifically review the problems and propose solutions to remove them.

In particular, he requested members of the City People's Committee, departments, branches and localities to focus highly on management according to the goals and tasks of each month and each quarter.

Each district chairman and each department director reviews each outstanding task. If any task hinders the common work, a plan should be made to remove the obstacles.

"Many department directors, when asked about the task, said they didn't know. In the end, it was because the task had been assigned to the deputy director, or the permanent deputy director handled the work but the director didn't know. That's not allowed..." - Chairman Phan Van Mai said.

To overcome this situation, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will supervise the work of the Vice Chairmen and Department Directors. In case of delays in tasks, the Department Directors and heads of agencies must take responsibility and the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is responsible to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, the Party Executive Committee, and the City People's Council.

The head of the city government also requested that the entire system focus on reviewing long-standing backlogs to find solutions. The problems must be solved at each level. Particularly, large projects such as Ring Road 4, the International Financial Center, and the city's master plans... need to be pursued and completed in order to submit them to the Government and the National Assembly in the meeting at the end of this year.

Overview of the socio-economic situation in the first 8 months of Ho Chi Minh City:

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City: With Resolution 98, working in 1 year is more effective than in a whole term . Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai affirmed that after nearly 1 year of implementing Resolution 98 of the National Assembly, the results achieved are more than in a whole term (5 years) compared to the previous special Resolution 54.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City: Effectively apply Resolution 98 to attract strategic investors Chairman Phan Van Mai said that it is necessary to effectively apply Resolution 98 to attract strategic investors and welcome a strong wave of investment back to Ho Chi Minh City.