Tuesday’s conference to discuss city’s economic restructuring
By Thu Nguyet - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – The impacts of Vietnam’s joining WTO and HCMC’s economic restructuring for the next five years are due to be discussed by economic experts at a conference on Tuesday.
The “Assessments of the Impacts of Vietnam’s WTO Accession and HCMC Economic Restructuring” conference will delve into issues involving the city’s economic and social development, and proposed appropriate shifts in the economic structure to ensure continued growth.
The roles of government, business and market will also be defined to facilitate the development process.
The conference is organized by the HCMC Institute for Development Studies, and HCMC WTO Affairs Consultation Center (HCC-WTO), and supported by Beyond WTO Program under a project financed by the Australian Aid Program (AusAID) and UK Department for International Development (DFID).
The conference takes place at a time when the country is working toward an economic restructuring strategy for the next 10 years and an economic development plan for the next five years.
In addition to Vietnam’s Social Economic Development Strategy (2011 - 2020) and Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011 - 2015), the Ministry of Planning and Investment has drafted a project to boost the country’s economic restructuring to enhance its productivity and competitiveness.
There is a need to make clear Vietnam’s arguments on facts and theories about national economic restructuring, according to a statement of HCMC.
In the city, a program with different components is being implemented to support the city’s economic restructuring in the five years ending 2010. The city is shifting its economy towards services, industry and agriculture.
Tu Minh Thien, director of the Investment and Trade Promotion Center of HCMC, said at a recent meeting that the city was focusing on industries such as IT, electronics, mechanical engineering and food processing.
But there is a paradox that labor-intensive industries, including garment and textiles, are making big contributions to the city’s GDP, instead of the key sectors, he said.