In the historic month of April, the whole country joyfully looks forward to the important milestone - the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025). In the journey of half a century of development and integration, the business community of Ho Chi Minh City has made an important contribution to helping Ho Chi Minh City transform strongly, maintaining its role as an economic locomotive, a center of innovation, and an international trade hub of the whole country.

Lesson 1: Important contribution to shaping Ho Chi Minh City as the economic locomotive of the whole country

Since April 30, 1975, Ho Chi Minh City has gone through a proud 50-year development journey, overcoming many challenges. The business force is not only the pillar of the economy but also a symbol of the pioneering, creative, daring to think and dare to do spirit of the people of the City.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, who has been associated with the City's business community since the renovation until now, has held many positions from the leader of the largest retail enterprise in the City to the leader of the Department of Industry and Trade and is now the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA), shared about the development journey and the companionship of the business community associated with the development of Ho Chi Minh City.

Pioneering enterprise, dare to think, dare to do

HUBA Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Hoa said: Ho Chi Minh City, after liberation, faced numerous difficulties, from exhausted infrastructure to shortage of materials, escalating prices... After that, the City revived and made a breakthrough with the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, and pioneering initiatives such as "breaking the fence" on food mechanism, the first public-private partnership model, opening the goods market... creating an important premise to pave the way for the innovation initiated in 1986.

When the 6th National Party Congress (1986) initiated the renovation process, Ho Chi Minh City quickly took the lead in piloting the development of the private economy. Individual business households and private enterprises were legally recognized. Brands such as Thien Long, Kinh Do, Saigon Co.op... were born from that entrepreneurial spirit, gradually asserting their position in the market and are now strong brands of the City and the whole country.

The "first innovation" - The first export processing zone was born

Along with the strong development of the domestic business community after the renovation, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed the first wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) with the formation of Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, the first export processing zone in the country established on November 25, 1991.

According to Mr. Phan Chanh Duong, former Deputy General Director of Tan Thuan Company Limited, the successful pilot of Tan Thuan EPZ has paved the way for Ho Chi Minh City to continue establishing many other EPZs and Industrial Parks (IPs). The EPZs and IPs of Ho Chi Minh City were established to achieve the Government's five economic goals: Attracting domestic and foreign investment capital; creating jobs; importing advanced technology and management experience; increasing export capacity, generating foreign currency revenue; contributing to promoting the city's socio-economic development towards industrialization, modernization and urbanization of suburban areas.

Thanks to the formation and development of EPZs and IZs, the City has attracted many domestic capital flows and especially FDI enterprises to invest in. Foreign investors in Tan Thuan also created a confidence effect on the general investment environment for Ho Chi Minh City. In the period of 1991 - 1995, foreign investment capital increased sharply, an average of 68% per year. Thereby, contributing to the City's trade and industry to have a breakthrough development, contributing significantly to the City's growth.

According to statistics, if from 1986 to 1990, Ho Chi Minh City's GRDP increased by an average of 7.82% per year, then from 1991 to 2010, for 20 years, the average growth rate of the City was always above 2 digits. It can be said that this is the fastest growth period of Ho Chi Minh City to date, making an important contribution to the overall development with a proportion of more than 30% of the country's GDP.

The government always accompanies businesses to overcome all difficulties.

After a period of rapid double-digit growth, HUBA Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Hoa said that the growth rate of Ho Chi Minh City has slowed down, mainly due to the global financial crisis (2010) which had a strong impact on other countries, especially in the context of Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country entering a period of comprehensive integration after Vietnam joined the WTO. Enterprises face fierce competitive pressure.

Recalling that time, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh, former Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Ho Chi Minh City branch, said: It can be said that this was a period of economic difficulties and challenges, the world economic recession affected the country, lending interest rates were very high at 16-20%/year, the real estate market was frozen, businesses were "starving for capital" to produce due to high interest rates and lack of collateral.

To support enterprises, based on the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam coordinated with HUBA, the Department of Industry and Trade and districts to implement the program connecting banks and enterprises (NH-DN) from July 2012, with an interest rate of about 13%/year (lower than the general market) for enterprises to maintain and expand production and business activities. The amount of capital that enterprises access through the program increases gradually each year. By 2015, the program had disbursed more than VND 173,100 billion, applying a short-term loan interest rate in VND of no more than 7%/year, and the interest rate for medium and long-term loans was 9%/year. Thereby, contributing to helping the production and business activities of enterprises in the City gradually stabilize and recover.

HUBA Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Hoa said that, along with the bank-enterprise connection program, since 2015, Ho Chi Minh City has continued to "pioneer" in promoting the investment stimulus program, creating "seed capital" to support businesses to expand investment, innovate machinery and technology, improve competitiveness, contribute to participating in the supply chain of FDI enterprises and boost exports.

With the investment stimulus program under Decision 50/2015, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has approved 296 participating projects, with a total investment of nearly VND 25,300 billion, of which the loan capital supported by the budget for interest is more than VND 11,900 billion. In the period of 2015-2020, the amount of capital the Ho Chi Minh City budget has spent to support interest for projects is more than VND 2,300 billion. On average, each VND of the budget has attracted about VND 9.54 of investment capital from society.

Thanks to the support from the government and the courage to rise up, overcome difficulties, and the spirit of innovation and creativity of the City's business community, the production and business situation of the City's enterprises recovered and grew strongly in the period 2015-2020, thereby helping Ho Chi Minh City's GRDP in the period 2011-2020 increase by an average of 6.86%/year, exceeding the national average (in fact, in most years the City grew by over 8%, only in 2020, due to the impact of the pandemic, the growth rate only reached 1.39%). In 2020, Ho Chi Minh City's economic scale accounted for nearly 26% of the national GDP, the enterprise density reached 27.6 enterprises/1,000 people - more than 3 times the national average.

From 2021 to now, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ho Chi Minh City's economy has declined sharply (-6.78% in 2021), but thanks to the efforts of the government and the business community's ability to overcome difficulties, in 2022, Ho Chi Minh City's economy recovered quickly, growing by 9.03%, far exceeding the set plan (6-6.5%). To date, nearly 350,000 businesses in Ho Chi Minh City have adapted, overcome difficulties, restructured, and promoted digital transformation. Private enterprises account for 95% of the total number of enterprises; contributing over 65% of the City's GRDP; 80% of enterprises have applied digital technology.

Chairman of HUBA Nguyen Ngoc Hoa affirmed: Ho Chi Minh City has gone through a proud 50-year development journey. In which, the business force is not only the pillar of the economy but also a symbol of the pioneering, creative, daring to think and dare to do spirit of the people of the City.

Le Anh

( to be continued )

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/doanh-nghiep-tphcm-doi-moi-sang-tao-dam-nghi-dam-lam-tu-tin-buoc-vao-ky-nguyen-moi-102250413150229279.htm