Leveraging the Unique Mechanism of HCMC to Implement Synchronized Measures for Socio-Economic Development

On the threshold of the Giap Thin Spring 2024, Mr. Phan Van Mai, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Chairman of the People’s Committee of TPHCM, had a discussion with the press on the solutions to implement the above-mentioned target.

Sir, in 2024, TPHCM has set a fairly high growth target, from 7.5-8%. In the context of still many difficulties, what does the city plan to achieve this growth rate?

Mr. Phan Van Mai : Indeed, this is a very challenging target, however, the city is determined to implement it because this target is in line with the direction in Resolution 31 on the development of TPHCM and Resolution 24 on the development of the Southeast Region set by the Politburo.

To achieve this target, the city has built a quarterly growth scenario and from the beginning of the year, we have implemented measures to promote growth.

In addition to promoting the 3 basic drivers of growth in investment, consumption, and exports, the city has paid attention to new growth drivers through the implementation of Resolution 98 of the National Assembly as well as the implementation of measures to promote new business models to attract social investment into infrastructure, into science and technology as well as strategic investment development, developing consumption in new forms.

With this result, in January 2024, compared to the same period last year, we saw all the basic indicators increase: Industrial production index increased by 26.9%; retail sales of goods and services increased by 24.4%; import and export increased by 23.3%; and disbursement of public investment increased by 3.2 times. Thanks to this, the city’s budget revenue reached 16.7% compared to the planned estimate.

The city will regularly update growth scenarios to supplement measures and build monthly scenarios for some key issues to ensure efficient and effective management, and strive to maintain high growth. I am confident that TPHCM will achieve its 2024 growth target.

There is even more reason to believe in this city’s target when looking at the general situation of the whole country, on the firm foundation of 2023 and positive signals from the beginning of 2024. The Government, especially the Prime Minister, is particularly concerned about the city, as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh himself is the Head of the Steering Committee in charge of implementing Resolution 98 of the National Assembly and resolutely pushing for tasks to implement the Resolution.

Two forces for breakthrough of TPHCM

“Determined to effectively implement digital transformation and Resolution 98 of the National Assembly” is the theme of 2024 that the city government has chosen. Can you tell us more about these two forces?

Mr. Phan Van Mai : Regarding the digital transformation, we will focus on both digital government, digital economy, and digital society. The city is determined to make a new progress, creating important platforms in digital transformation and building a smart city.

Accordingly, we will focus on developing a shared database of the city connected to the national database. In 2024, the city will focus on developing databases on land, construction, and operating population databases according to Plan 06.

Second, the city will focus on developing digital infrastructure, especially basic infrastructure and strengthening investment in equipment for agencies to ensure smooth operation.

Third, we will develop synchronized common application platforms throughout the city. In 2024, the city will operate the Administration Management platform of the city government as well as the Citizen app – the communication channel between citizens, organizations with the government.

Fourth, we will focus on training human resources in both the short and long term for agencies, businesses, and even society.

Fifth, we will study and issue policies to support the city’s digital transformation work, support businesses’ digital transformation, support new business models, and attract social investment for the city’s digital transformation work as well as the development of a smart city.

Finally, we will promote the activities of the city’s newly established Digital Transformation Center. This will be a strong tool to help the digital transformation process take place quickly and effectively.

Regarding the implementation of Resolution 98, the city will continue to follow to complete the institutionalization of the mechanisms, policies at the latest stage in Quarter I / 2024, and focus on implementing the contents in specific documents.

In addition, the city will focus on the deployment of mechanisms to remove obstacles in planning, investment; implement investment projects in forms such as BT, BOT, PPP in fields such as transportation, health, education, culture-sports.

At the same time, deploy mechanisms, policies on the development of science and technology, innovation. The city will continue to study to specify difficult mechanisms, policies such as TOD (model of urban development following the development of public transportation), carbon credit market.

Research proposals for new mechanisms for the international financial center in TPHCM as well as the urban railway system development project by 2035 and infrastructure development tasks that require mobilization of large capital.

The city will also study Resolution 98 along with Conclusion 14 of the Party Central Committee on protecting cadres to apply, propose, and resolve long-standing issues to remove obstacles, open up resources, and promote the development of the city.

Concentrated implementation of public investment disbursement measures

In 2024, TPHCM is assigned a record high public investment capital of VND 80,000 billion. How did the city prepare for this work?

Mr. Phan Van Mai : In 2024, the task of disbursing public investment fund of the city is very heavy, reaching VND 80,000 billion. If compared to the total social investment capital of the city in 2023 of VND 370,000 billion, this number accounts for 21.6%, which is a very large amount.

Up to now, we have had decisions to allocate capital to all investors. The city has also organized a conference to deploy public investment disbursement in 2024 and in the first week after Tet holiday, we will hold the first meeting of the year to update the implementation of this work. We see that the implementation is quite proactive, the result of January’s disbursement is 3.2 times higher than the same period in 2023.

Here, the city identifies a few issues. The first is the responsibility of investors. Investors must plan the capital disbursed for all the assigned capital, for each project and must closely monitor to coordinate, remove difficulties, and report timely when there are adjustments to the capital.

The second is the responsibility of the departments. Departments must be responsible in the process of appraisal, giving opinions, and coordinating to solve arising obstacles. Here, we set a target for the time to resolve the obstacles caused by the procedures of public investment to reduce 30% compared to general regulations.

For the responsibility of related units such as contractors, consulting units, we will monitor and work regularly, promptly handle if there are cases that affect the progress of the project.

In addition, we will focus on high intensity for land clearance work, compensation support, and resettlement. This is the responsibility of districts, but we also determine the need for coordination from investors and clearance from departments. The city has established a working group on land clearance, assigning the group to closely monitor the task of land clearance, if there are difficulties, it will coordinate to solve them.

In terms of capital management, the city will monitor the plan to make adjustments when necessary. If any project is not disbursed in a timely manner, the city will promptly adjust the capital. We have directed the departments, project management boards, and localities to prepare mid-term projects to timely replace when there is a need to adjust capital. The working agency in charge of monitoring public investment disbursement is the Department of Planning and Investment which will directly undertake this task and propose to the People’s Committee of the city.

The city will also strengthen inspection and supervision of decentralization, authorization, and even handling of responsibilities of collectives, individuals affecting the progress of public investment disbursement.

Those are the comprehensive measures that the city focuses on implementing from the beginning of the year with the determination that this year’s disbursement will achieve the highest results of the assigned capital of VND 80,000 billion.

Concentrate on greenizing the economy

In 2024, the city officially embarks on a green economic transformation journey with a target to reduce emissions by 10% by 2030. Is this ambition too high and what will the city do to realize this goal, sir?

Mr. Phan Van Mai : Green development trend is a trend that the world is transforming and it is necessary for the Vietnamese economy in general and TPHCM in particular. Since October 2020, the city has issued a Plan including 56 programs

and 30 projects to implement the emission reduction target. The city is implementing the integration of these programs and projects.

Recently, the city has also issued a Strategic Framework on green growth until 2030. The People’s Committee of the city is completing to submit to the Municipal People’s Council for the issuance of the Framework of green growth policies in the mid-term meetings in 2024.

Accordingly, we will focus on emissions reduction through transportation, encouraging the use of public transport, transforming polluting means of transportation; reduce emissions through production by transforming production technology, developing a circular economy, and reducing emissions through behaviors such as green construction, green tourism, green consumption.

The city will also focus on energy transition, aiming to use clean and energy-saving energy. At the same time, invest to solve problems of wastewater treatment, waste treatment, save input resources for the city’s production and living process.

This is a very large task, it takes time, resources, and of course requires the companion of the people and businesses. We really hope that in addition to the policies of the state and the city, businesses also need to invest, people need to change their perceptions, behaviors in the process of green transformation.

The city also hopes to cooperate with international organizations to have more resources for the green transformation process to take place faster and more effectively.

Thank you, sir!