HCM City must lead the way: PM
HCM CITY — Prime Minister Phan Van Khai wants HCM City to focus on re-structuring industrial production for the making of high-quality, competitive goods,
It should also become a pivotal commercial and financial centre that led development of the country’s economy and trade, he told a working session with the HCM City Party’s and People’s Committees on Monday.
The Prime Minister emphasised that the municipal authorities needed to quickly resolve such urgent issues as the supply of safe water, waste treatment, pollution, crime and other social problems.
The city should re-think its transport network, including the airport and harbour, as well as its medical and education systems and stop the unregistered and out-of-city-building of private houses, he said.
Traffic congestion was becoming more serious and that the city administrators and the Transport Ministry needed to deliver an effective remedy.
Responding to the city’s proposed changes in town planning, Khai said they should not be made without consultation with the surrounding region.
New urban zones should meet all environmental protection requirements, he said.
HCM City representatives at the meeting, who included the Party Politburo and the city’s Party Secretary Nguyen Minh Triet and HCM City People’s Committee Chairman Le Thanh Hai, briefed the prime minister about socio-economic development in the first six months of the year.
They told him that industrial production and services had accounted for 97 per cent of the city’s gross domestic product, GDP, while social investment increased by 5.5 per cent in the first five months of 2003.
City revenue had reached almost US$1 billion - a year-on-year increase of 6.3 per cent.
Yearly per-capita income was about $1,500.
Three more join
Earlier, the prime minister announced that the provinces of Long An, Tay Ninh, and Binh Phuoc had been added to the Southern Focal Economic Zone.
The new provinces will complement HCM City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in the zone.
The announcement was made at a two-day meeting to discuss measures to further develop the country’s most dynamic region with provincial authorities and ministries.
The Prime Minister instructed the ministries to focus on a railway network capable of meeting greater demand because cargoes to be carried out of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta will soon exceed 10 million tonnes a year.
He told delegates representing provinces of the southern economic zone that State-owned enterprises would have to be reorganised and investment from all economic sectors mobilised if they were to fully exploit their resources and match their potential.
Production is exporting processing zones and industrial parks should be promoted by providing housing and facilities for workers, he said.
The devolution of administrative responsibility to the provinces would require effective provincial policies to ensure success.
Major plans will now focus on:
Building a highway network for the region, including the HCM City’s ring-road to link the city to provinces within the economic zone as well as other southern provinces; Railways from depots to ports; and
a fifth group of seaports with a 100-million-tonnes a year handling capacity, including the relocation of ports within inner HCM City.
Health Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien emphasised the need of the economic zone provinces to focus on the development of their human resources.
Otherwise they would fail to develop the labour needed for industrialisation.
A Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs ministry official said the industrialisation would accelerate urbanisation and many farmers jobless.
The Ministry asked the Government for a VND500-billion investment for vocational schools to train displaced farmers in new skills. — VNS
