HCM City Party Committee holds 18th conference

During one and a half days of sitting, the conference heard reports and reviewed the socio-economic performance in the first half and devised tasks and solutions for the rest of the year.

Tasks for the remainder of the year include a project to build a monument of President Ho Chi Minh, guidelines on historical compilation of the HCM City Party Committee in the 1975-2015 period, and the implementation of the 11th Party Central Committee’s Resolution on some urgent issues of the current Party building in 2013 and the first months of 2014.

In his opening speech, Deputy Secretary of the HCM City’s Party Committee Vo Van Thuong said this conference is of great significance for carrying out socio-economic tasks in 2014 and underlined the need to complete the 9th municipal Party Committee’s resolution as part of preparations for the 40th celebration of the Southern liberation for national reunification and the organization of the 10th municipal Party Committee’ conference.

“In the reviewed period, the city continued to face numerous difficulties and challenges caused by the complicated regional and global situation, especially following the illegal placement by China of its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) which has seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction.

However, the city achieved encouraging results as important tasks for growth, budget revenue, total social investment, people's healthcare, education-training, rural development, sustainable poverty reduction, ensured social security met or exceeded the target of last year’s same period.” Thuong said

Regarding the President Ho Chi Minh monument building project, Thuong said it is imperative to ensure progress and quality of the project to make sure it will be completed on schedule.

At the meeting, Municipal People's Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan informed about the city’s socio economic and cultural situation over the past six months and major solutions for the second half.

During the 6 month period, the socio- economic situation experienced positive changes with higher agricultural growth and application of high technology and biotechnology in production which have brought high-quality products.

Another important indicator is that State revenue reached VND121,900 billion, meeting 54% the yearly plan thanks to strengthened management of tax collection and better facilitation of business activities.

With higher foreign investment attraction, Quan predicted that from now to the end of the year, investors will continue to focus their investment on high-tech zones, support industries in HCM City.

Along with efforts to remove difficulties for businesses, the city also implemented capital support programs for businesses by connecting to banks which lent them VND12,000 billion.

The city is intent on helping businesses borrow VND20,000 billion especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SoEs), enabling them to renew equipment and technology to improve the efficiency of production and business.

The conference will close on July 5.