VietNamNet Bridge – 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