Ho Chi Minh City prepares for economic recovery

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Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Labor)

Nguyen Thanh Phong, the chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said some essential activities that involve less risk would resume gradually, with small-scale businesses in low-risk sectors reopening on a trial basis first and then large ones.

The city would then review, evaluate and expand, he said.

Depending on the trajectory of the pandemic, the city would adjust the trial period.

The city has also approved a plan to support businesses affected by the outbreak through this year, with a focus on enabling them to ensure production in a safe environment, cut costs, improve production and trading technologies, and generally revive things.

In the first three months, the city's gross domestic product (GRDP) was estimated at VND 335,682 billion, up 0.42% over the same period. Regarding the industry structure in GRDP, the service sector accounted for 60.63%, industry and construction accounted for 22.85%, agriculture accounted for 0.53%.

In general, due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic, the growth rates of regions and economic sectors were all lower or lower than the same period last year. The trade and service sector was most affected, down by 1.23% over the same period.

A number of sectors that had many active business activities in the past were in a recession, operating moderately with five out of nine key service industries having negative growth...In the context, the city always takes care of the cultural and spiritual life of the people.

Ho Chi Minh City traffic (Photo: Thanh nien)

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee suggested that the city continue to implement effective measures to prevent and control Covid-19; emphasizing that each production establishment, departments, agencies and sectors must build criteria and behaviors of collectives and individuals to stabilize their lives soon, reported by Nhan Dan.

The city continues to perform well the work of social security; gradually increase the scale in the service sector, boost support for enterprises in production and development activities, ensure that all units have set up safety production and business criteria. Besides, the city prepares to organize a good party congress at all levels as planned.

To ensure the economy's stable development under new conditions, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong said that Ho Chi Minh City has proactively developed policies and mechanisms to revive the city economy when the epidemic situation was over. Ho Chi Minh City would relax gradually but have to control properly so that there will be no disregard for COVID-19 disease.

Ho Chi Minh City has developed and implemented a set of criteria to assess the risk of disease transmission to businesses. 7 more sets of criteria including safety indicators in schools, culture, sports, transportation, tourism, industry and commerce, food hygiene, and public areas were set up to control the situation. The epidemic is associated with economic development in new conditions. These 7 sets of criteria will be completed before April 30, including the responsibilities of each business owner in the new situation, according to CafeF.

Manufacturing activity in Ho Chi Minh city (Photo: Sai Gon Businessman)

Huynh Van Tuan, chairman of the trade union of the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (HEPZA), said more than 640 companies carried out an assessment of infection risk based on indicators issued by city authorities, and most rated their risk at less than 50 per cent.

HEPZA has set up a committee to verify their assessment and ensure the companies apply safety measures to protect their workers such as insisting on face masks and checking workers for fever at the gate, he said. They have rescheduled shifts and meal timings to prevent crowding and installed safety screens at dining tables, he said.

Despite facing difficulties due to the pandemic, the city sustained a certain level of production and business in the first quarter. The HCM City Computer Association and its member businesses have launched an e-commerce platform for the information and communications technology sector at http://dichvusotphcm.vn/.

Le Quoc Cuong, deputy director of the city Department of Information and Communications, said the platform, still being improved, would at first meet business matching demand from businesses. Over a longer term it would play an important role in enabling ICT enterprises across the country to enhance connections and boost e-commerce sales, he said. Businesses do not have to pay a fee to post their product information on the portal, reported by Vietnam News.

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