HCM City leader says time to focus on investment quality

CA - The economic restructuring undertaken by HCM City over the last couple of decades has gained impressive achievements, and the time has come for it to focus its investment policy on quality rather than quantity, says People's Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan.

Hi-tech investments by leading players like Nidec, Intel and First Solar, the project to produce electronic chips by the HCM City National University and initial results obtained by the Quang Trung Hi-Tech Park are signs that the city's economy will continue to grow in the right direction, he said.

Quan said the city has enjoyed continuous growth in industrial value which was always higher than the national average.

Similar growth has been achieved in all sectors over the last few years, he said. Between 2006 and 2010, the city's industrial value nearly doubled the previous five-year period, especially in mechanical engineering, information technology, chemical manufacturing and food processing sectors.

In 2010, the total production value of these four sectors reached VND124.4 trillion, a growth of 15 per cent over the previous year. However, when compared with some countries in the ASEAN community, the city's industrial scale was still smaller, Quan said.

This requires the city to mobilise all its resources for developing the hi-tech sector in coming years, he said.

Improvements effected in the city's investment climate have yielded fruit, with more and more giant corporations choosing to invest in HCM City of late. The city will continue to implement a policy to create the most favourable conditions to attract investment, Quan said.

At the recent meeting on socio-economic development, the city reported an industrial output of VND54 trillion (US$2.7 billion) for January, a 12.9 per cent growth over the same period last year.