On the morning of April 30, at the ceremony, parade, and march to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025), General Secretary To Lam presented the title of Hero of Labor to the Party Committee, government, and people of Ho Chi Minh City.

General Secretary To Lam, on behalf of the Party and State leaders, presented the title “Hero of Labor” to the Party Committee, Government and People of Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: VNA

In recognition of the outstanding achievements in preventing and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and recovering the socio-economy, contributing to the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland, the Party and State have decided to award the title of Labor Hero to the Party Committee, government and people of Ho Chi Minh City.

At the ceremony, parade, and march to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day, General Secretary To Lam presented the title of Labor Hero to the Party Committee, government, and people of Ho Chi Minh City. Comrade Nguyen Van Nen, Politburo member, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee; along with the Standing members of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, representatives of the Party Committee, government, and people of Ho Chi Minh City received the noble award of the Party and State.

Resilient in the fight against COVID-19

During the years 2020-2024, the Party Committee, government and people of Ho Chi Minh City have had exceptionally outstanding achievements in preventing and fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and restoring the economy and society.

Specifically, with the motto "all people, comprehensive, fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy", especially since the 4th outbreak, Ho Chi Minh City has become the epicenter. The Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and People's Committee have issued 353 documents to direct and guide effective epidemic prevention work.

The city has mobilized the entire health sector and relevant forces to collect more than 1,500 samples, and organized a system of Covid-19 treatment facilities according to the "tiered tower" model with over 40,000 beds. The city has set up 1,109 vaccination teams, administered 13,941,785 doses of vaccine, thereby helping to achieve a high rate of coverage of 2 doses of vaccine for people aged 18 and over. The city focuses on propagating and mobilizing people to implement measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic; deploying the application of the national population database (VNeID) to connect, authenticate, and share data on COVID-19 prevention and control.

Along with the direct task of fighting the epidemic to suppress the epidemic, the task of maintaining the city's activities and ensuring people's lives is extremely important. Ho Chi Minh City has received and distributed more than 71,104 tons of rice from the national reserve to support 4,740,330 people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 epidemic; directly received more than 10,800 units of support with a total amount of more than 5,908 billion VND, of which more than 5,792 billion VND was spent and distributed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of gathering forces and mobilizing all resources of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City was highly promoted; the active participation of socio-political organizations and social organizations with many creative and humane movements such as "Comradely affection", "Housewives", "Connecting life - Carrying love", "Millions of social security bags", "Vietnamese arms", "Saigon loves each other", "Rice ATM", "Love market", "Zero-dong market"...

The city mobilized philanthropists, volunteer kitchens, and charity kitchens to cook tens of thousands of free meals every day to support the epidemic prevention forces and households in difficult circumstances to ensure hygiene and food safety; Coordinated well the issuance of travel permits to volunteer forces and volunteers with more than 5,000 cases to promptly support difficult cases and F0 patients... Mobilized more than 20,000 landlords to exempt or reduce rent for 273,728 rooms with a total amount of more than 158 billion VND; there are 178 models and good solutions to ensure social security in the city, including 109 charity kitchens, 59 zero-dong stalls, 7 rice ATMs... Mobilized nearly 700 religious volunteers to participate in serving at hospitals treating COVID-19 patients...

The economy recovers strongly after the pandemic

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the political system and people of Ho Chi Minh City joined hands and unanimously overcame difficulties and challenges, synchronously and effectively implemented solutions and measures to enhance the city's economic resilience, focusing on supporting businesses to recover production and business after the pandemic, stabilizing the macro-economy, controlling inflation, and striving to maintain a positive average economic growth rate.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, GRDP growth in 2021 declined sharply to -5.36%; in 2022 it recovered and increased by 9.03%. Ho Chi Minh City's economy continued to recover positively, shifting towards modernization, with a fairly good growth rate. The estimated average GRDP growth rate in the 2021 - 2025 period is about 5.3%/year.

Total budget revenue in 5 years (2020-2024) reached 2,208,380 billion VND, an average of over 441,000 billion VND per year, contributing to the state budget about 25.9% of the country. Of which, industry - construction accounts for an average proportion of 16.74% in GRDP; Trade - Services account for an average proportion of 64.2% in GRDP; City tourism has welcomed 145.2 million visitors, total tourism revenue accounts for about 25% of the country's total revenue. The contribution rate of tourism to GRDP of Ho Chi Minh City is about 10% annually on average.

Attracting increasing domestic and foreign investment, total foreign investment capital reached 25.89 billion USD. Ho Chi Minh City has about 20,000 enterprises conducting import-export trade activities with 214 countries and territories; the export market structure has shifted strongly to countries/territories that Vietnam has participated in Free Trade Agreements (FTA); the processed industrial goods group continues to grow and accounts for a large proportion of export turnover (accounting for 74.1% in 2021 and 78% in 2024).

From 2020 to 2024, the city has allocated a detailed annual public investment plan of VND 259,512 billion, of which the central budget capital is VND 29,327 billion (accounting for 11%) and the local budget capital is VND 230,184 billion (accounting for 89%). Public investment projects implemented by the health sector to invest in building facilities and put into use include 24 city-level hospital projects with a total investment of more than VND 17,419 billion and 10 district-level projects with a total investment of VND 2,715.73 billion...