With less than 2.5 months left until the end of 2024, the time to complete the socio-economic development targets of the whole country in general and especially for Ho Chi Minh City is under great pressure when having to accelerate many solutions, sprint against time to achieve the set goals for the whole year.
Positive growth momentum in Q3
According to Mr. Nguyen Khac Hoang – Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office, the city’s socio-economic situation in the third quarter and the first 9 months of 2024 continued to have positive changes. Industrial production, consumption and export are still the three main pillars affecting economic growth in the area. The industrial production index for the whole industry in the first 9 months increased by 6.9% over the same period, reflecting increasing market demand and the year-end production cycle will create momentum for the industrial production sector. A very encouraging thing is that exports have increased again after many months of decline, recording an increase of 1.2% in import and export revenue. Many businesses said that they have stable orders from now until the end of 2024, some orders even lasting until the first quarter of 2025.
According to Mr. Nguyen Khac Hoang, total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue continued to maintain stable growth with an increase of 10.5%, higher than the national average. The indicators show the recovery of the manufacturing sector, as well as proving that the stimulus program is being implemented very well. Particularly in tourism activities, this sector has completely recovered, contributing positively to the city’s economy, with an increase in domestic and foreign visitors. In particular, the 14.3% increase in budget revenue has confirmed that some production and business sectors have stable growth. Along with that, regular budget expenditure increased by 14.1%, which is a very good signal in the city’s growth. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City’s inflation index is also at a low level of 3.17% and is forecast to remain at 4% in 2024.
According to Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai, although the city’s socio-economic results in the third quarter of 2024 continued to recover and develop in a positive direction, with each quarter being higher than the previous quarter, especially in the third quarter, there has not been a breakthrough; coordination between departments, branches, sectors and localities still has many unclear points…
Short-term solutions must be synchronized.
According to experts, last September, although Ho Chi Minh City was not directly affected by storm No. 3, it was still affected in terms of its production chain, consumption market and tourism. This is hindering a breakthrough in the last months of the year, especially in the context that the entire political system of the city must focus on striving to complete the socio-economic targets for the whole year.
With the forecast of the city’s economic growth reaching only over 7%, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said that if the city wants to achieve 7.5% in 2024, it must grow by over 9% in the fourth quarter. This really puts a lot of pressure on the implementation of tasks from now until the end of 2024 (only 2.5 months left to finish).
According to Dr. Nguyen Van Hien – former Vice President of the University of Finance and Marketing, in order to achieve the expected annual growth target, in the fourth quarter of 2024, Ho Chi Minh City needs to focus on a number of short-term but breakthrough solutions. In particular, focusing on promoting support for 3 areas: export, consumption, investment. Accordingly, regarding export, the city’s leaders need to work with banks, increasing capital support for businesses with contracts and export orders. For the consumer real estate market, the city needs to pay attention to removing difficulties for businesses that have sufficient legal status to implement social housing projects for low-income people but are lacking capital. The city needs to have policies to support debt deferral, increase disbursement, and absorb capital for these businesses.
Another important issue is to focus on stimulating consumption at the end of the year by measures such as: promoting consumer loans along with consumer promotion programs for the poor; restarting businesses specializing in the production and supply of goods for consumption. In addition, Ho Chi Minh City should pay special attention to accelerating public investment, absorbing capital for projects, and creating jobs for workers according to the motto “where there is a problem – there is a solution”.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai, in many speeches directing the implementation of key tasks in the fourth quarter, always emphasized that there is no need to hesitate any longer. From now on, agencies, units, localities, and each leader must review and accelerate the implementation of solutions, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency’s operations, and coordinate to make the administrative system more effective. Each department, branch, locality, and each leader must choose key and central tasks to implement.
In particular, for public investment disbursement, this is one of the tasks that the entire political system must focus all its efforts on implementing, and sectors, localities, and investors must focus on drastically solving and removing difficulties and obstacles related to projects and land. In particular, it is necessary to focus on solving outstanding issues regarding planning, site clearance, speeding up the construction progress of key projects; and soon putting into operation the urban railway project metro line 1 in this fourth quarter. Regarding public investment disbursement, Ho Chi Minh City will not make adjustments, but will focus on solving obstacles to achieve the highest results (95% of the assigned capital plan).