HCMC obtains a double-digit economic growth rate

VGP - Hồ Chí Minh City achieves a growth rate of 11% this year despite inflation and instability in financial and real estate markets.

December 10, 2008 4:28 PM GMT+7

The signing ceremony of the US $3.4 billion Berjaya international university town project

In 2008 the city has seen high increases in its GDP, services, export and tourism. The city has welcomed 3 million turns of visitors.

Its total retail and service revenues reaches VND 234,800 billion. The city’s software industry earns more than US $116 million and the hardware sector, US $450 million, including US $270 million from hardware export.

The industrial production value reaches more than VND 170,000 billion, in which the domestic economic sector goes up by 10% and the foreign-invested sector by 19.2% against the same period last year. The total value of agriculture, forestry and fisheries amounts to more than VND 3,000 billion, an increase of 7.1%.

According to the Municipal People’s Committee, most of State-owned enterprises, especially corporations, have played an important

Hồ Chí Minh City’s socio-economic performance in 2008

Total GDP: VND 290,905 billion, up 11%

Added value of service sector: VND 156,107 billion, up 12.8%

Export turnover: US $24,805 billion, up 35.4%

Tourism revenue: VND 29,000 billion, increasing 20%

Budget collection: more than VND 110,000 billion, up 23.16%

role in maintaining economic growth, curbing inflation, ensuring the demand-supply balance of essential goods, and stabilizing markets.

This year, the City has attracted US $8.38 billion of FDI, up 4.22 times against the same period last year and higher than the total FDI for five years from 2003 to 2007.

The amount of FDI capital poured into education, health care and information technology has constantly increased, with many large-scale projects like the Berjaya international university urban quarter (US $3.5 billion), Teco software park (US $1.2 billion); Việt Nam-Japan intellectual park (US $605 million) and a hi-tech health care center (US $400.5 million).

Positive results have been also seen in thrift practice and anti-prodigality, contributing to the city’s economic development.

By Ngọc Vân