The above targets are part of the Politburo's Resolution No. 31 on development orientations and tasks for the Southern metropolis to 2030, with a vision to 2045, which was recently signed by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

By the end of this decade, HCMC will become a modern service-industrial city, a leader in digital economy, and an economic, financial, commercial, cultural, educational, scientific and technological center of the whole country.

By 2045, the development level of HCMC will be on par with major cities in the world, become an economic, financial and service center in Asia, and an attractive destination in the world.

The Politburo requested that HCMC focus on fast and sustainable economic development on the basis of innovating the growth model, restructuring the economy, and improving productivity, quality, efficiency and international competitiveness, while mobilizing and effectively using all resources.

The metropolis was tasked to improve the quality of urban planning and urban management, step up sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation, and promote the construction of synchronous and modern infrastructure.

The city needs to give priority to development of synchronous and modern transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure; speeding up construction of key projects such as Tan Son international airport expansion, ring roads 3 and 4, HCMC-Can Tho raiwayl.

The city of Thu Duc, part of the Southern metropolis, will strive to become a new growth pole, an innovative, highly interactive city, and the nucleus of HCMC's socio-economic development.

The city is authorized to pilot the selection of investors through the public-private partnership model to implement investment projects in the fields of culture, sports and science and technology.

HCMC covers an area of more than 2,060 sq meters with a population of 8.9 million people as of last October. It is home to 22 districts including one that has become a city (Thu Duc), 16 urban districts and five suburban districts.

From 2010 to 2020, HCMC's economy expanded 2.7 times and its GRDP doubled. However, the city still faces with limitations including low competitiveness and slowed economic growth compared to the previous period while its investment environment remains slow to improve and the per capita income goal being unmet

Last year, despite difficulties and challenges, HCMC's GRDP growth accelerated to 9.03 percent, surpassing the initial target of 6-6.5 percent.

The Municipal People's Committee has set the growth target of 7.5-8 percent next year./. VGP