The internal strength of the economy is thanks to the great effort of the business community and business households. In the photo: Activities of an enterprise in Linh Trung Export Processing Zone 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: VNA

“Bright spot” of economic recovery

According to the report of the General Statistics Office, the economic picture of Vietnam in 2022 has many outstanding bright spots.

Typically, the import-export turnover in the first 11 months of 2022 is approximately 674 billion USD, of which the trade balance achieved a large surplus of 10.6 billion USD; state budget revenue reached VND 1,638 trillion, equaling 116.1% of the estimate, up 17.4% over the same period in 2021; total retail sales of consumer goods and services reached over VND5.1 quadrillion, up 17.5%; FDI disbursement reached 19.68 billion USD, the highest in the past 5 years.

Along with the whole country going through a difficult and challenging year after the Covid-19 pandemic, Hanoi - as an economic - political center, and a locomotive, has made a worthy contribution to the overall economic growth of the country. Accordingly, the socio-economic figures given at the tenth session of the Conference, the Executive Committee of the Hanoi City Party Committee, term XVII, which has just taken place, has shown a rebound in growth and recovery in the two largest centers in the country.

Speaking about the socio-economic results of Hanoi in 2022, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Ha Minh Hai said that in 2022, the city has achieved and exceeded all 22 socio-economic development targets. Economic growth is quite high, estimated at 8.8%, higher than the national average (about 8%). Total state budget revenue in the area is 332,961 billion VND, reaching 106.8 percent of the estimate, up 2.7% compared to 2021. Total local budget expenditure is expected to be 100,567 billion VND, reaching 94.1% of the estimate assigned at the beginning of the year, in which, development investment expenditure reached 90.1% of the estimate; recurrent expenditures reached 95.5% of the estimate.

The scale of gross domestic product (GRDP) is estimated at 774.1 trillion VND; GRDP/person reached 142.3 million VND. Hanoi city has reduced Value Added Tax for over 72,000 businesses and business establishments with a total tax reduction of over VND 13,000 billion; extending tax payment, land rent for nearly 19,000 businesses and business establishments with a total amount of nearly 12,000 billion VND.

Similarly, overcoming difficulties and challenges, the economic locomotive of Ho Chi Minh City recorded a strong recovery with important achievements. According to the report of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, in the first 11 months of 2022, budget revenue has had positive growth, estimated at 457,500 billion VND, reaching 118.35% of the assigned estimate and increasing by 17.05% over the same period in 2021. Ho Chi Minh City is currently leading the national budget collection when completing the budget collection plan in October 2022. At the same time, the city is estimated to increase by 9.03% over the same period (in 2021, Ho Chi Minh City's economic growth will decrease by 6.78%) and exceed the set plan by 6-6.5% in 2022.

Notably, according to data released by the General Department of Customs, by the end of November, Ho Chi Minh City's import and export turnover reached 101.58 billion USD, of which 43.62 billion USD was exported and 57.96 billion USD was imported.

Of the 63 provinces and cities of the country, Ho Chi Minh City has the largest scale of import and export turnover and is the first locality to reach a scale of 100 billion USD or more, by the end of November.

Along with that, the implementation of the program on socio-economic recovery and development of Ho Chi Minh City in the 2022-2025 period continues to be effective, economic fields have a good growth rate.

Key construction projects were implemented according to the plan, and the removal of difficulties in investment projects had a positive impact on the investment environment. The direction and administration of administrative reform continues to be identified as a key task and is implemented drastically and closely. Ho Chi Minh City has proposed many solutions to focus on reviewing and determined to achieve and exceed 19 socio-economic targets in 2022 along with 89 administrative reform tasks in 2022.

Many difficulties and challenges

However, according to experts, the socio-economic situation of the two largest cities in the country is currently facing many challenges. Speaking at the conference to implement the socio-economic development plan, budget revenue and expenditure estimates, total administrative, non-business, science and technology staff in 2023 taking place on December 12, Chairman of the People's Committee Hanoi's Tran Sy Thanh said that the economy grew well, making an important contribution to the economic development of the country.

The internal strength of the economy is the great effort of the business community and business households. The business investment environment has improved markedly; contributing to stabilizing prices, markets.

However, in 2023, Hanoi sets a target of 7% gross domestic product (GRDP) growth; total product per capita (GRDP per capita) is about 150 million VND (estimated to reach 142 million in 2022); investment capital increased by 10.5%; export turnover increased by 6%; control price index below 4.5%; reduce 30% of poor households compared to the end of 2022.

The head of Hanoi city proposed to continue to accelerate reform of administrative procedures, strengthen the application of information technology, drastically in budget revenue and promote speed up public investment.

Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Thi Thang acknowledged that the city's economy has a large openness and is directly affected by fluctuations in the international situation. Financial and currency markets face increasing pressure, and stock markets, corporate bonds, and real estate decline. Along with that, the local shortage of gasoline directly affects people and businesses. Meanwhile, although the pandemic is under control, there is still the potential for complicated developments.

Nguyen Van Lam, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in the last days of 2022, a number of enterprises in the fields of garment, leather and footwear, and wood processing had difficulties in finding export orders. Note that orders started to decrease in the fourth quarter of 2022, and is expected to last until the first quarter of 2023. According to statistics, currently, in Ho Chi Minh City, there are 328 businesses with 53,638 employees affected by the decrease in orders. Businesses try to maintain workers by not arranging overtime, reducing working hours, taking 1 day off or some days of the week, and giving annual leave.

Against that background, in 2023, at the 8th meeting of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City, term X, held from December 7-9, Ho Chi Minh City set a goal of maintaining stability and preventing economic decline; stabilize production and business activities, support enterprises to continue to recover, maintain and grow, create jobs, and ensure social security.

At the same time, focus on administrative reform, improve the efficiency of public service activities; promote the improvement of the investment environment. Remove bottlenecks, open up resources, quickly absorb and mobilize various investment capital sources; accelerate the implementation of key projects, infrastructure projects, traffic and urban areas. Creating a breakthrough in digital transformation and developing the knowledge economy in association with exploiting the potential of science and technology.

Ho Chi Minh City also set out 11 key tasks and solutions in 2023 to implement the year's theme and ensure socio-economic development. In which, Ho Chi Minh City is proactive and flexible in socio-economic management; focus on restructuring the economy towards improving self-reliance and high adaptability and resilience; and focuses on market development.