Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi is striving to achieve the growth target of 7.5% i🍒n industrial production and 7% growth in Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) this year.

To this end, the municipal People’s Committee will focus on assisting businesses in expanding markets. Associations and enterprises will receive support to exploit traditional markets and explore potential markets such as Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, West Asia, South Asia, Africa and Latin America. The city will also promote the dissemination of information about free trade agreements so that businesses can understand the challenges and opportunities to enhance the expansion of production and investment, chain links, markets, and exports. The effectiveness of trade promotion activities will be improved along with promoting consumption in the domestic market, reducing inventory and connecting domestic enterprises with foreign businesses to secure orders through fairs and exhibitions. Hanoi will continue to provide support for domestic enterprises participating in the supply chains of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises and large global enterprises. Businesses will be assisted in digital transformation, technology application and transfer, building smart factory models and green production as well as customs clearance procedures at border gates. The city will create favourable conditions for businesses to access credit capital sources with reasonable interest rates so that they can maintain and develop production and business. It will continue to improve the business investment environment to attract investment in the fields of high-tech and supporting industries as well as foreign investment which is associated with sustainable development goals. Priority will be given to qualified projects with added value and competitive products, focusing on high-tech and supporting industries that use modern and environmentally-friendly technologies. Regarding the development of production and business infrastructure, Hanoi will review and remove obstacles related to industrial clusters, managing to start construction of 20 industrial clusters in 2023. It will solve difficulties for businesses in terms of land, capital, market, investment and logistics. The city will speed up the implementation of projects, including a project to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the 2021-2025 period and a project to assist startups in the city in the 2019-2025 period and a plan to support small and medium-sized enterprises in digital transformation in the 2021-2025 period. To attract more investors, the Hanoi administration will promote administrative reform, managing to reduce at least 20% of internal administrative procedures and at least 20% of compliance costs relating to business activities. The city’s economy has revived rapidly after the COVID-19 pandemic. It recorded year-on-year GRDP growth of 8.89% in 2022, higher than the target of 7 - 7.5%, according to the municipal Statistics Office. The GRDP grew by 5.97% in the first half of 2023, 1.6 times higher than the national average. The city’s budget revenue rose by 22.9% over the same period last year. Compared with other localities in the northern key economic region and the whole country, although Hanoi respectively accounts for only 21.2% and 1% in terms of area, and 41.7% and 8.1% in terms of population, it contributes 47.46% and 12.59% in terms of GRDP. It also contributes 52.48% and 17.07% in terms of state budget revenue, and 14.19% and 4.61% in export turnover. The capital city attracted 1.69 billion USD in FDI last year, among Vietnam’s best performers in this regard. The figure represents a year-on-year rise of 10.3%. The FDI inflow rose to 2.26 billion USD in the first half of 2023./.