Sizeable increase: Dock workers load containers onto a vessel at the Saigon port in Ho Chi Minh. The city’s regional GDP reached US$15.38bil (RM67.8bil) in the first quarter of this year, up 0.7% year-on-year, according to a report by the Statistics Office. — AP
HO CHI MINH CITY: The economic recovery of Ho Chi Minh City is likely to face challenges for the remainder of the year, a city official warns.
Speaking at a meeting on Sunday to review its socioeconomic results in the first quarter, Nguyen Van Nen, the secretary of the municipal Party Committee, said: “The city’s economy grew only 0.7% in the first quarter, the lowest among the country’s five centrally-run cities and much lower than forecast.
“The country’s largest city will continue to face problems caused by the escalating global turmoil.
“The global economic headwinds and inflation have affected all economic sectors, hindering the recovery,” he added.
The real estate, stock and bond markets are all facing obstacles amid tightening monetary policies, said Nen.
A number of enterprises have also reported a lack of export orders due to weak global demand, and the situation will not likely improve until the end of the year, he said.
Vo Tri Thanh, member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, said Vietnam’s economy was facing problems related to macro variables such as inflation, bank liquidity, cash flow, exchange rates, interest rates and the real estate market.
Meanwhile, Huynh Phuoc Nghia, a lecturer at the University of Economics of Ho Chi Minh, said the city’s 2023 growth target of between 7.5% and 8% would be too high to achieve.
“Amid a world economy fraught with complex fluctuations and instability, we cannot expect the city’s economy to recover in 2023,” he said.
Nen, secretary of the city’s Party Committee, said despite this, the city would continue taking measures to support companies and workers.
It would seek ways to supply the economy with capital amid the tight monetary policy. For example, it was implementing a programme to link up lenders and firms to provide the latter with loans.
“One of the most important tasks is speeding up public spending,” he added.
Tri Thanh recommended that the government step up measures to address the problems, such as support for businesses to access capital.
He recommended the country take advantage of China’s opening up of its tourism industry to attract more international visitors to Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh.
Early this year, Ho Chi Minh lowered its growth target for 2023 to 7.5% to 8%. Previously it was 9%.
The city’s regional gross domestic product reached 360 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$15.38bil or RM67.8bil) in the first quarter, up 0.7% year-on-year (y-o-y), according to a report by the city’s statistics office.
Its growth was lower than the national average, ranking 56 out of 63 cities and provinces across the nation, according to the report.
The agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors went up by 2% and the service sector by 2.07%, while industry and construction slowed by 3.6%.
The city’s total retail sales of consumer goods and services reached nearly 264 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$11.24bil or RM49.5bil) in the first quarter, up 4.7% year-on-year.
The index of industrial production dropped 0.9% while the consumer price index went up 4.5%.
Foreign direct investment in the city reached US$497.5mil (RM2.2bil). Exports were up 5.1%.
Nearly 10,000 enterprises were established with a total registered capital of 88.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (RM16.7bil) in the first quarter, up 7% in the number of firms and down 39.1% in value against the same period last year.
Vietnam’s gross domestic product growth slowed to 3.32% y-o-y in the first quarter, the second lowest growth rate in 12 years. — Viet Nam News/ANN
