Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at a working session with HCM City’s key leaders on June 23 (Source: VNA)
At a working session with HCM City’s key leaders on June 23,PM Phuc said it is a must for the city to build an innovative economy, become amomentum for sustainable development and drive the country’s intensiveinternational integration.
He emphasised core values the southern hub should looktowards, including smart urban infrastructure, smart management, technocracy,inclusive growth and equal development opportunities for all people.
“HCM City’s key objective is to generate jobs with increasingincomes, create sustainable collection sources for State budget and leave noone behind development,” the Government leader stressed.
PM Phuc voiced his hope that HCM City will put forthlong-term planning schemes which target sustainable development, and urged thelocality to review its land use plan and report the results to the PM in August.
The PM requested HCM City to take the lead in terms ofadministrative reform, strive to enter the list of the five localities with thebest provincial competitiveness index, and create new breakthroughs in privateinvestment.
To that end, HCM City, together with the capital city of Hanoi,should pioneer in start-up and innovation and become an international centre ofeducation and health care, he said.
The government leader asked the municipal Party Organisation andadministration to focus efforts on removing bottlenecks hindering the city’ssocio-economic development, especially in transport infrastructure, and renewthoughts. “The Government will accompany the city’s innovations,” he affirmed.
At the meeting, PM Phuc also praised the city’s contributionsto the country’s GDP and state budget collection.
In the first half of this year, HCM City’s economy grew 7.76percent as compared with 7.47 percent in the same period last year, with thebest performers being services, industry, construction, and agriculture. It isa huge task for the city to reach the economic growth rate of 8.5 percent setfor the last six months and the following years, the leader said.
PM Phuc also pointed out a range of limitations such asdecreased competitiveness index and below-average readings of unofficialspending, equal competitiveness, legal institutions and systematic dynamism. At the same time, the city has to facewith such problems as flooding, traffic jams and pollution, he said.
Regarding the expansion of Tan Son Nhat International Airport,PM Phuc urged relevant agencies and units to promptly seek experts andorganisations to make scientific assessments so as to soon implement theproject, explaining that the Long Thanh international airport project, whichaims to reduce the overload of Tan Son Nhat airport, is scheduled to becompleted in 2025-2027.
Representatives from ministries and agencies held that HCMCity has become an attractive destination for investors and stressed the needfor the locality to select suitable projects and prioritise urgent programmesin order to create impulses for its growth.
They also suggestedHCM City intensify the decentralisation of management at different levelsand finalise a legal framework, thus giving a facelift for the locality.
Speaking at the working session, Secretary ofthe municipal Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan said that HCM City commits toexert all-out efforts to complete socio-economic targets and overfulfill thetarget of State budget collection.
HCM City will continue with administrativereform and strive to launch the granting of investment licences under the one-stopmodel in September, in tandem with settling pressing issues like waste andtraffic jams.-VNA