Le Thanh Hai, secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, said at the closing session of the 10th conference on July 4 that “for our city, the aim to increase GDP by 10 percent in 2012 will be a big challenge, but we must continue to strive to meet the goal with drastic and effective measures, and create favorable conditions for development and growth”.
Mr. Hai added, “In the first six months of 2012, the city has been recovering economically with positive developments. After 16 months of implementation of Resolution 11 of the Government that focuses on cautious monetary policies and tightening of public investments there are clearer results. For example, inflation has been intercepted; GDP per capita in the first six months has increased 8.1 percent and the total turnover of retail goods and services increased by 22.3 percent.
HCMC is responsible for leading and supporting enterprises to recover production. The city authorities will be more proactive in coordinating with the private sector to provide capital, expand markets, take measures for tax exemption and reduction, and stretch deadline for tax incentives for priority businesses.”
“We will not tolerate any business stopping or decreasing scale of production while they still have the market due to lack of working capital; the business should not stop expansion of production due to lack of business credit,” Mr. Hai said.
“We will not accept that while banks have extra money, enterprises face lack of capital,” added Mr. Hai. He required that banks support the real estate market and those products that hold the purchasing power in the market. HCMC will "draw the purse" to support trade; expand potential markets, the traditional export market and the domestic market.
"The concerned administrative agencies will support enterprises to overcome difficulties from the beginning, from providing credit up till marketing their products", Mr. Hai said.
Mr. Hai also laid emphasis on building infrastructure in the City, provide better service and work towards modernizing the country.
“To invest in building infrastructure in the City we now have three sources of funds: the City budget, urban land and the private fund by social means. Along with construction and project planning, we need to find other sources as stipulated in the Party Central Committee’s policy issues. For example, the content of public private partnership model (PPP) should be institutionalized to ensure attracting private investments.”
Concerning solutions to raising capital, Mr. Le Thanh Hai said that the City has many advantages that should be fully utilized.
Mr. Hai said that planning and construction of infrastructure in the City must ensure three principles: ensure uniformity in investment objectives; ensure goals for restructuring the City’s economy along with relocation of population and urban expansion as planned; ensure that the City’s economic development be linked to the economic development of the whole of the southern region.
"The goal of construction of infrastructure must serve the goals for economic development and improvement of people's living standards and development of HCMC”, he said.
“However, economic development must narrow the gap between segments of population and create conditions for the poor strata of society, so that low-income groups can enjoy the fruits of investment and receive appropriate social welfare”, Mr. Hai emphasized.
