The HCM City Party Committee said
yesterday, March 29, that first quarter satisfactory results had been achieved,
but priority should be given in the second to fight inflation.

Convening the fourth meeting of its term, the committee reviewed socio-economic
achievements of the first quarter and set targets for the second.

The
three-day meeting ends today.

The meeting drew attention to six key tasks for socio-economic
development set by the 9th municipal Party Congress recently: improving human
resources; combining administrative reforms with creating a new model for urban
administration; accelerating the economic restructuring process; reducing
traffic jams; preventing floods and reducing
environmental pollution.

The
meeting noted that the city had achieved a GDP of VND85.5 trillion in the first
quarter, an increase of 10.3 per cent over the previous quarter. This was almost
double the national figure of 5.5 per cent for the same period.

The
city’s industry and construction sectors chipped in with a first quarter growth
of 10.9 per cent, followed by the service sector with 10 per cent and the
agricultural sector with 4.2 per cent.

While
the number of new foreign direct investment projects licensed in the city was 26
less than the previous quarter at 59, there was a three-fold increase in
registered capital to US$1.1 billion.

The
Party Committee said utmost priority had to be given to controlling inflation in
the second quarter.

With
strengthened social welfare measures, a survey found most residents expressing
confidence in the city’s economic development this year, it noted.

Besides
discussing solutions to curb inflation, manage the foreign currency exchange
rate as well as interest rates, the meeting also focused on ways to strengthen
Party and the Government, as well as the upcoming elections to the National
Assembly and People’s Councils.

A recent
meeting of the city People’s Council set an annual growth target of 12 per cent
for the next five years and a per-capita GDP of $4,800 in 2015.

For the
same period, city legislators also set the target of reducing the poverty rate
to less than 2 percent and ensuring clean water access to 98 percent of urban
households.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News