A view of HCM City from the Saigon River (Photo: VNA)The city is now home to 440,000 registered enterprises, 96.4 percent ofwhich are domestic concerns and the remainder foreign-invested. The non-Stateeconomic sector contributed 54.7 percent to the city’s GDP last year while the foreignsector accounted for 19 percent.
Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, Le ThiHuynh Mai, said that since early this year the municipal People’s Committee hasgranted investment licenses and decisions on investment policies to 15 projectsworth nearly 2.37 billion USD, including the Thu Thiem Eco Smart City with totalinvestment of 20.1 trillion VND (873 million USD) in the Thu Thiem New UrbanArea, which is invested by the Republic of Korea’s Lotte Properties HCMC.
Public Affairs Director at Intel Products Vietnam, Ho Thi Thu Uyen,expressed a belief in the city’s leadership and mechanisms to expandinvestment, especially in hi-tech industry.
The city’s efforts have improved its governance and publicadministration efficiency.
Phu My Hung urban complex in District 7 (Photo: VNA)One of its effective measures to attract investment is the establishmentof a working team led by the Chairman of the municipal People’s CommitteeNguyen Thanh Phong, which has cleared difficulties in site clearance, the grantingof land use licenses, and improving the business climate.
Mai said the team dealt with difficulties faced by 92 projects,including 51 in real estate, 21 in technical infrastructure, 18 in socialinfrastructure, and two in production.
Municipal authorities assigned the Department of Planning and Investmentto complete and issue a business environment improvement strategy before April.At the same time, the municipal Investment & Trade Promotion Centre andDepartment of Planning and Investment set up a unit to collect feedback fromenterprises.
Regarding increasing the land base for industrial development, Phongsaid the Government has allowed the city to convert 1,999 ha of agriculturalland into urban and industrial land and for transport infrastructure.
The city has also submitted a proposal to establish a hi-tech industrialpark on 384 ha in Hoc Mon district.
It is striving to attract 5.4 billion USD worth of FDI this year andestablish 40,000 new enterprises in various areas./.
VNA
