HCM City (VNA) - Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong hasasked agencies to improve production of major industries and diversify tourismproducts, as well as speed up the capital disbursement rate of publicinvestment projects in the city.

Speaking at a conference on February 18, Phong said the city has asked its Departmentof Industry and Trade to propose measures to improve production of four majorindustries in the first quarter.

The request came as the four industries, which include mechanical engineering,electronics, chemicals-rubber-plastic, and food processing, saw a productiondecrease of 2.71 percent in January over the same period last year.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City's industrial production index (IPI) in January 2020decreased by 3.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

Phong also urged agencies to complete a logistics development project thatwould make the city a major logistics hub by 2025.

The project will build three logistic centres through technical infrastructure,and would aim to increase the number of businesses hiring specialised logisticservices, with the goal of reducing costs, Phong said.

To cope with the outbreak of the acute respiratory disease caused by the novelcoronavirus (COVID-19), Phong asked the Department of Tourism to provide adviceon a planned request to the Prime Minister to reduce taxes on the tourism industry,especially on small business households in the city.

This week the city will hold a conference to remove difficulties for businessesand accelerate the progress of some real estate projects, Phong said, addingthe city has received a number of real estate requests about legal proceduresfrom businesses.

In addition, Phong said the city receives over 5 billion USD of remittancesannually, of which 7.2 percent is for production investment.

This is a great resource, and Ho Chi Minh City will develop effective schemes tomaximise remittances, he said.

Le Thi Huynh Mai, Director of the city’s Department of Planning and Investment,said the city’s total retail sales of goods and service revenue reached 113trillion VND (4.86 billion USD) in January, up 3.6 percent compared to Decemberand up 11.2 percent over the same period last year.

HCM City was estimated to earn 3.9 billion USD worth of exports in the firstmonth of the year, up 10.2 percent over the same period last year, according tothe city’s Department of Planning and Investment.

The city welcomed 840,000 international visitors in January, an increase of 5.9percent over the same period last year, bringing in tourism revenue of morethan 13 trillion VND (559.72 million USD).

The city collected nearly 43 trillion VND worth of budget revenue in January,equal to 96.07 percent of the same period last year.

Nearly 2,800 domestic enterprises in the city were established in January witha total registered capital of more than 33.5 trillion VND, mostly in real estate,building, wholesale and retail, and processing and manufacturing industries.

Ho Chi Minh City’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) reached more than 1.34 quadrillion VND, an 8.32 percent increase year-on-year.

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the city set a target of achieving a growth rate of 8.5 percent for GRDP in 2020, with total private investment accounting for 35 percent of GRDP.

This year, HCM City also aims to have 44,000 new businesses, creating 135,000 new jobs.

In 2019, the city attracted 8.3 billion USD worth of foreign investment, with its labour productivity being nearly three times that of the whole country (299.8 million VND per person, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2018)./.