Ho Chi Minh City’s GRDP in the first quarter had an impressive growth rate of 7.51%. This is the highest increase compared to the same period since 2020.

Economic growth 7.51%

Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee recently held a meeting to evaluate the results of socio-economic tasks in the first quarter and deploy tasks and solutions in the second quarter of 2025.

Reporting at the meeting, Ms. Le Thi Huynh Mai, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, said that the total product in the area (GRDP) in the first quarter reached 457,617 billion VND, up 7.51% over the same period; of which, industry increased by 5.7%; service sector increased by 8.72%; product tax minus product subsidy increased by 4.53%; total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in the first quarter reached 316,632 billion VND, up 14.2% over the same period; export turnover reached 11.7 billion USD, up 5.05%; import turnover reached 15.6 billion USD, up 15%; total tourism revenue reached 56,662 billion VND, up 26.7%.

The city’s total state budget revenue in the first quarter reached VND151,098 billion, up 29% and 7.72% over the same period. The city disbursed VND4,556 billion in public investment capital in the first quarter, reaching 5.4% of the plan.

Assessing the city’s 7.51% growth rate, Mr. Nguyen Khac Hoang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office, said that this was the highest growth rate in the first quarter in the past 5 years since 2020. This is an optimistic growth rate, but this figure shows many challenges for the city if it wants to achieve a full-year growth rate of 8.5% to 10%.

“If the annual growth target is 8.5%, the expected growth in the first quarter must be between 8.38% and 8.54%. Not to mention the higher expectation of 10% growth this year. Thus, the result of 7.51% in the first quarter is not as expected,” Mr. Nguyen Khac Hoang analyzed.

Solutions for the future

Mr. Truong Minh Huy Vu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies, said that to achieve the 2025 growth target at a double-digit rate, the city needs to focus on two groups of areas including business development and scientific and technological innovation.

According to the report, in the first quarter, Ho Chi Minh City had 6,632 newly established enterprises with newly registered capital of VND42,014 billion, down 39.7% in quantity and 55.2% in capital compared to the same period. Notably, 16,904 enterprises temporarily suspended operations, up 10.3% compared to the same period. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on why enterprises have suspended operations in order to find solutions to resolve or improve the situation.

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Van Duoc said that in the coming time, the City will continue to resolutely, synchronously and effectively implement the Resolutions and conclusions of the Central Committee, City Party Committee and City People’s Council on the management of the socio-economic development plan for 2025.

Accordingly, the City focuses on mobilizing all investment resources for development, focusing on the private economy, considering the private economy as one of the most important driving forces for growth, increasing labor productivity and competitiveness of the economy.

Effectively deploy the plan to implement the project of mobilizing social resources to invest in infrastructure development in the City in 2025, with the goal of mobilizing total social investment capital to strive for over 620 trillion VND. Synchronously implement tasks and solutions to accelerate the progress of implementation and disbursement of public investment capital in 2025 to complete the investment disbursement plan target.

For the 49 overdue tasks that have not been completed, the City will focus on maximum resources to complete them. Every week, each agency and unit will focus on reviewing and reporting the list of tasks being received, with problems or beyond their authority, and report to the Standing Committee of the City People’s Committee according to the assigned sectors and fields for timely direction and resolution.

In addition, the City assigned departments and branches to closely monitor the situation and advise on solutions to achieve the set important economic targets.