“Sometimes, difficulties are caused not only by objective reasons but also by irresponsibility of authorities in Ho Chi Minh City. Municipal authorities at all levels will have to take action to deal with the city’s difficulties,” said Chairman of HCM City People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan at a recent meeting reviewing socioeconomic situations in the city in the first quarter of 2012.
Production contraction
Mr Thai Van Re, Director of HCM City Department of Planning and Investment, said: The city’s GDP grew 7.4 percent in the first quarter (compared with 10.9 percent in the same quarter of last year), the lowest quarterly growth since the first quarter 2009 (4 percent) when global financial and economic crisis peaked.
Mr Nguyen Van Lai, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade, expressed his concerns over export and import activities. In the first three months, export slowed down because foreign importers cut orders while quality requirements are higher. Vietnam mainly exports simply processed products with low values; thus, turnovers are not very high. Industrial manufacturing companies are being hurt by weak purchasing power and increasing inventories because of high cost prices which are driven up by higher prices of inputs and exorbitant interest rates.
Director Thai Van Re warned that as many as 5,012 companies submitted the notice of operating suspension to the Taxation Department but only 462 companies sent such a notice to the Department of Planning and Investment. Particularly, 1,725 businesses informing their operating suspension are finalising bankruptcy procedures while 1,198 companies fled. Most of these troubled companies are involved in trade, construction, transport and tourism. “Rising prices of inputs, limited credit sources and inflationary impacts have forced companies in HCM City to contract operations,” said Mr Re.
Actions speak louder than words
Mayor Le Hoang Quan said Tran Huu Trang Theatre project is an urgent project to serve arts performances in the city. The Municipal People’s Council allocated the capital for it in 2009 and scheduled for completion in 2011. “I wait for the completion of this project but I do not get it although the time is already over. I feel that there are some problems with it and I directly drop in on it. To my eyes, the land plot for the project has been leased to pottery traders,” he said. He checked construction documents of this project at the Department of Construction, finding out that the initial budget of VND78 billion was reduced to VND50 billion and now raised to VND120 billion.
“I don’t know how they do with big projects when they cannot work out this small one. The construction was commenced but left incomplete for a long time. This fault is the irresponsibility of concerned departments. It seems that projects carried out by district authorities are quicker and better than those performed by municipal authorities. It seems that heads of municipal authorities see that they hold no responsibility for this sort of projects. They necessarily review their responsibility,” he said.
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“Under this difficult circumstance, departments and districts cannot passively wait for but they must actively seek solutions to support businesses to troubleshoot difficulties to maintain and develop production and business. Together with stepping up public administration reform, there is a need to refresh the sense of responsibility of administrative agencies and staffs, especially the responsibility of the leaders.”
Mayor Le Hoang Quan of
Ho Chi Minh City
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Mr Nguyen Tan Dinh, Deputy Director of HCM City Industrial and Export Processing Zones Authority (HEPZA), said: Companies in the city plan to recruit 30,000 workers in 2012, a decrease of 20,000 people from 2011, but the actual number of recruited workers may be fewer. At present, they are striving to maintain production rather than expand it. In addition, over 100 small and medium enterprises ceased operations in industrial parks and export processing zones.
Vice Chairman of HCM City People’s Committee Hua Ngoc Thuan said: Improving the quality of human resources is one of six innovative programmes of the city but this is almost ignored by municipal and district authorities. To date, five out of 17 departments have not mentioned this programme and 12 out of 24 districts show no plans to implement it.
Chairman Le Hoang Quan said HCM City will focus on restructuring its economy, changing growth paradigms, and enhancing competitiveness. The city will also reshuffle commercial banks. Authorities at all levels will responsibly seek solutions to support enterprises to live through difficulties.
Vice Chairwoman of HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong directed the State Bank of Vietnam - HCM City Branch to work with concerned departments to check the capital demand of enterprises to make suitable interventions and supports.
Vietnamese
