People buy goods at a supermarket in HCM City. VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — HCM City’s economy has seen a steady revival and is on course to return to pre-COVID levels, chairman of its People’s Committee, Phan Văn Mãi, has said.

Speaking at a meeting yesterday on the city’s socio-economic situation in the first half of the year, he said the administration had made great efforts to help businesses access funds for their recovery and provided significant policy support to ensure socio-economic activities proceeded smoothly.

“Administrative procedures remain the biggest obstacle to capital disbursement, hindering capital flows into production and trade activities and the creation of new jobs.”

He called on authorities in Thủ Đức City and the city’s districts and government agencies to focus on smoothing administrative procedures to speed up economic recovery and growth.

Lê Thị Huỳnh Mai, director of the Department of Planning and Investment, said the Government’s policies to support businesses impacted by the pandemic had brought positive results, prompting economic recovery in the city and full resumption of socio-economic activities.

But the disbursement of public investment capital was well below targets and the city’s ranking in the Public Administration Reform Index dropped to 43 from 23 in 2020.

In the first six months of the year, the city’s economic output exceeded VNĐ728.7 trillion (US$31.32 billion), a year-on-year increase of 3.82 per cent after precipitous drops of 24.97 per cent and 11.64 per cent in the third and fourth quarters of last year.

Its Index of Industrial Production rose by 3.1 per cent year-on-year, with the four main sectors, food processing, pharmaceuticals- chemicals-rubber-plastic, mechanical engineering, and electronics expanding by 7.1 per cent.

Retail sales of goods and services surpassed VNĐ556.4 trillion ($23.91 billion), an increase of 6.2 per cent.

Exports grew by 13.8 per cent to $24.9 billion.

Revenues from tourism are estimated at VNĐ10.1 trillion ($434.27 million), a year-on-year increase of 233 per cent.

The number of domestic visitors to the city jumped by 43 per cent to more than 11 million while international tourism resumed and nearly 478,000 visitors came.

The city’s revenues are estimated at VNĐ238.6 trillion ($10.25 billion), or 61.74 per cent of the full-year target and up 17.49 per cent year-on-year. — VNS