HCM CITY — In the first half of the year the HCM City economy performed well, achieving growth of 7.68 per cent, up from 7.47 per cent a year earlier.

“The city has organised many conferences to speed up administrative reform, resolve difficulties faced by the business community, and encourage start-up companies,” Võ Văn Hoan, head of the People’s Committee Office, told a meeting held on Thursday to review the socio-economic development in the first six months.

From January to June, some 18,030 new companies with a combined registered capital of VNĐ492.7 trillion (US$21.8 billion) have been licensed, 2.2 times the number in the same period last year.

FDI doubled to nearly $2.15 billion.

The city’s revenues in the first five months increased by 18 per cent to VNĐ147.5 trillion ($6.6 billion).

Job creation, vocational training and support for poor people have been carried out efficiently to ensure social welfare.

The number of jobs created rose marginally to 151,212.

Services and retail sales grew by 10.3 per cent and industrial output by 7.5 per cent.

The city’s four key industries -- engineering and automation; electronics; chemicals, rubber, plastics; and food processing -- continued to perform strongly, expanding markets, investing in technology and improving quality and competitiveness, and growing at nearly 9.72 per cent.

The electricity grid was expanded and 11.1 billion kWh of power were supplied to users, an increase of 2.95 per cent.

The rate of electricity loss reduced by 0.08 percentage points to 4.28 per cent, translating into savings of 205.6 million kWh, or 57.1 per cent of the full-year target.

Exports were worth around $17 billion, an increase of 17.4 per cent.

Imports cost $19.9 billion, an increase of 17.8 per cent.

International and domestic investment in the city continued to grow, with the latter surging by 2.4 times.

“Relevant authorities have paid close attention to the environment, flooding and the traffic situation,” Hoan said.

“However, poor management and cumbersome administrative procedures are very common in many fields.

“The city will continue working with relevant authorities to improve State management in all fields from now to the end of this year.” — VNS