During the 2016-2020 period, HCM City will use VNĐ16.4 trillion (US$735 million) from the State budget to invest in phase 2 of a new rural area programme. — Photo tuyengiao.vn

HCM City – During the 2016-2020 period, HCM City will use VNĐ16.4 trillion (US$735 million) from the State budget, along with VNĐ24.2 trillion ($1.07 billion) from other financial resources to invest in phase 2 of a new rural area programme.

“The programme aims to narrow the gap of living standards and earnings among urban and rural residents,” Lê Thanh Liêm, deputy chairman of the municipal People’s Committee said at a conference on last Friday that discussed ways to improve criteria quality for new rural area construction in the city.

According to the programme, each commune would have around VNĐ726 billion ($32.5 million) to implement criteria and reach the goal of an annual income of VNĐ63 million ($2,850)/person in comparison with VNĐ40 million ($2,000) during 2011-2015.

“The new rural area construction in HCM City needs the proper solutions along with professional human resources because the HCM City rural area has a limited area but a big population,” Tất Thành Cang, deputy secretary of the municipal Party Committee said.

He suggested that policy makers should take advantage of the city’s strength in science, technology, trade and logistics to build a new rural area.

In other news, HCM City pledged to give more power to district authorities and departments as well as improve the business environment in order to have 50,000 new enterprises in 2017.

“The city plans to have 500,000 enterprises by 2020 compared with a current 300,000 now. To reach this goal, each year the city must have at least 50,000 new firms and it requires great effort from districts because most business activities relate to district authorities,” Sử Ngọc Anh, director of the municipal Planning and Investment Department, said.

According to the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) branch in HCM City, the city’s goal of having 50,000 new enterprises each year is possible because there are a lot of households doing business.

“We plan to provide financial support for small and medium size enterprises to help enable them to survive and develop,” Nguyễn Hoàng Minh, deputy director of SBV HCM City branch, said.

He revealed that the city’s banking sector has set a credit growth target of 18 – 20 per cent/year and it has adopted a loose to monetary policies to boost the economy.

By the end of this year, the banking industry would reach a growth of 18 per cent in comparison with 2015 and the city will have around 36,000 new enterprises for 2016 with total registered capital of VNĐ292.6 trillion ($13 billion).

“The city authorities pledge to create an open administration, but enterprises face administrative bottlenecks in districts. Therefore, the city will provide more power, but also more responsibilities for district authorities to improve the business environment,” Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said. -- VNS