City seen kicking off breakthrough programs in July

City seen kicking off breakthrough programs in July

Van Nam

Vo Van Hoan (2nd, R), head of the Office of the HCMC People’s Committee, speaks at a meeting in the city on February 29 - PHOTO: VAN NAM

Vo Van Hoan, head of the office, told the meeting that departments and agencies in the city have prepared the action plans for the programs, which are expected to be approved no later than the end of March.

Earlier, deputies of the 10th meeting of the city’s Party Congress for the 2015-2020 tenure approved the seven breakthrough programs for human resource development, administrative reform, growth quality, competitiveness improvement, traffic congestion and flooding control, and cityscape rehabilitation.

The programs will benefit local residents and businesses as they will deal with pressing issues like flooding, traffic congestion, seawater intrusion, air pollution and bureaucracy.

Hoan said HCMC’s leaders will meet domestic enterprises and join a meeting with foreign firms in March to discuss supporting measures for them. He noted that businesses could make proposals to remove specific hindrances and the city will find solutions to cope with firms’ difficulties.

Departments and agencies in HCMC will have to meet to find ways to improve the competitiveness of retail enterprises given Vietnam’s signing more free trade agreements.

Hoan said if the city’s retail sector is not strong, foreign companies will gain a bigger market share and this will leave negative impact on domestic enterprises. In March, the city will find ways to expand the retail system here and in other provinces, and consider purchasing some projects of retail businesses based in the city.

Hoan said the city’s consumer price index (CPI) was up 0.05% in February versus the previous month, much lower than the country’s average of 0.46%.

February saw HCMC’s industrial manufacturing index falling by 27% month-on-month as firms suspended operation for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday (Tet). In the first two months of this year, the index edged up 5.7% against the same period of 2015. Enterprises resumed operation and have stable production plans in the coming months.

The city’s total retail sales of goods and services in February were estimated at VND56.2 trillion (US$2.5 billion), down 13.2% against January but up 10.5% year-on-year.

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