Attending at the event were Politburo member, secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan, Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong, Deputy Standing Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Le Thanh Liem and 300 leaders of ministries, departments and international organizations, associations and businesses.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan highlighted outstanding contribution of FDI enterprises to the city's economic and social development.
The HCM City's government has continued to improve the investment environment. 2017 saw 41,629 newly-formed firms with a total capital of VND603,900 billion; 845 projects worth US$2.37 billion were granted investment licenses; 193 projects saw capital adjustment with additional capital of US$1.02 billion; 2,357 foreign investors contributed capital and purchased shares or portion of capital contribution to a company in Vietnam with a total capital of US$2.2 billion, he said.
The city's authorities has also implemented important items in the project “Developing HCM City into a smart city in the 2017-2020 period, with a vision to 2025”, the city's leader added.
American enterprises are willing share experience in building smart city, said John Rockhold, Executive Director at American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam - HCMC.
Michele D'Ercole, chairman of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Icham) highly appreciated the city's smart city project and introduced the annual Trento Smart City Week 2018 where HCMC could learn about experience and challenges in building smart city.
Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ho Chi Minh City (KOCHAM), said the local authorities should focus on clarifying social insurance benefits for employees, reducing logistics cost, applying information technology in the areas of customs and taxation, implementing digitization in all fields in all regions across the country.
Meanwhile the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) petitioned the city to implement environmental laws and VAT problems.
Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong committed to stabilize policies and procedures in 2018 and next years, hoping to reach the ratio of businesses doing online tax declaration of 98 percent and online tax payers of over 90 percent, cut down the time for customs clearance, shorten time for property and housing right registration.
