HCM City’s economy needs to pick up pace to achieve this year’s growth targets, heard a meeting held on October 1 to review the city's socio-economic development in the first nine months. (Photo: weland)HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi MinhCity’s economy needs to pick up pace to achieve this year’s growth targets, hearda meeting held on October 1 to review the city’s socio-economic development inthe first nine months.
“Vietnam will suffer a lot because of the tradewar between the US and China, and HCM City must have plans to cope with it,” NguyenThanh Phong, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said in his speech.
He said between 2013-2017 the city’s exports tothe US grew 8.4 percent a year and 19 percent to China.
Nguyen Van Trinh, deputy head of the HCM CityDevelopment Research Institute, said: “The trade war between the US and Chinais very complicated and hard to predict. Related authorities must carefully followit.”
He warned that Chinese goods might enter Vietnamto be designated as Vietnamese and exported to the US.
“If we are not vigilant enough, especially inthe case of similar export products like garments, footwear and furniture, theUS will apply anti-dumping tax of up to 200 percent on Vietnamese goods.”
He feared that while HCM City could keep outChinese goods, neighbouring provinces might not be able to manage.
“And Chinese goods might be sent through HCMCity to the US,” he said, pointing out the exchange rate problem.
“After the trade war began the ChineseGovernment devalued the yuan by 9 -10 percent, but Vietnam has only devaluedthe VND by 3 percent.
“That is good for Chinese goods for coming tothe Vietnamese market and increase their competitiveness.
“Vietnam cannot devalue the VND any more becauseit would have inflationary consequences. We can see that since the trade warbegan, there has been no reduction in Chinese goods entering the US,” Trinhsaid.
To prepare for the busy year-end season, themunicipal Department of Industry and Trade will increase supply of many goodsby 20 percent over last year.
Besides, it will organise promotional campaignsin neighbouring provinces to increase sales.
“In the final quarter of the year services andindustry must grow by around 8 percent to achieve the growth target,” said SuNgoc Anh, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.
In the first nine months, the city economyperformed fairly well, growing at 7.89 percent, edging up from 7.87 percent ayear earlier.
FDI doubled to nearly 5.47 billion USD, anincrease of 50 percent from last year. Exports were worth around 28.2 billionUSD, an increase of 7.7 percent. Imports cost 34.8 billion USD, an increase of10.5 percent.
Services and retail sales grew by 12.8 percentand industrial output by 7.89 percent.
The four key industries -- engineering andautomation; electronics; chemicals, rubber and plastics; and food processing --continued to perform strongly, expanding markets, investing in technology,improving quality and competitiveness, and growing at nearly 8.39 percent.
This year, 30,634 new companies with a combinedregistered capital of 673.5 trillion (29.3 billion USD) have been licensed,11.2 percent up from the same period last year.
Job creation, vocational training and supportfor poor people have been carried out efficiently to ensure social welfare.
The number of jobs created rose marginally to120,000, representing 93 percent of the year’s target.-VNS/VNA
VNA
