Ho Chi Minh City’s economy grows 11.2%

Goods exported through Sai Gon Port.

Nhan Dan – Ho Chi Minh City’s economy has seen positive developments and maintained a fairly high growth rate since early this year.

This was announced by the municipal Department of Planning and Investment at the September 24 conference to review the city’s socio-economic situation in the first nine months of this year, discuss solutions for the rest of the year, and approve a plan for the city’s socio-economic development and budget in 2011.

According to the report by the Department of Planning and Investment, the city’s GDP was estimated at VND 303.5 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%. The service sector accounted for 53.6% of the GDP, up 11.2%; the industrial and construction sector occupied 45.5%.

Thanks to the effective price stabilisation of essential goods and the campaign ‘Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnam ’, the city sufficiently met the consumption demand of local people. Total retail sales of goods and services reached over VND 268 trillion in the first nine months. The total export turnover was estimated at US$15.71 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1%.

Nearly 40,000 poor households in the city received over VND 187 billion in loans. The city created jobs for over 4.100 labourers and over 317,000 poor local people were granted health insurance cards.