New motivation for the economic locomotive

	HCM City Customs achieves budget revenue over VND 102,000 billion
	HCMC Customs attempts to reach the target of VND 109 trillion
	HCMC Customs rushes to complete the state revenue target

With specialized mechanism, HCM City has lot of prospects for future development. Photo: Dang Nguyen

Reform creates motivation for growth

Instead of going to the Department of Planning and Investment to make the registration for capital contribution and purchase of shares and contributed capital of enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City as before, now, FDIs can do this online. Also, HCM City has officially put into operation the program of online investment registration phase 2, which is applied to procedures for issuance of a new investment registration certificate. This program has been supported by investors and enterprises and has received nearly 2,000 successful online applications. That is one of procedure reforms that is highly appreciated by the people.

Following the results achieved in previous years, in 2017 Ho Chi Minh City continued to use the advance internet and technological infrastructure to carry out many programs for administrative reform and reduce direct contact between enterprises and authorities. This helps to reduce the harassment, to make recording savings transparent, and to facilitate the inspection and supervision therein after. Therefore, the online administrative procedures has attracted a large number of enterprises.

According to the report from the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, most enterprises in the city have made an online tax declaration, reaching 99.99%. The number of enterprises registering online tax payment was approximately 98%. Currently, 92% of the monthly tax documents were electronically submitted. The shortening of customs procedures has also helped to cut the customs clearance time by more than 50% compared to the regulations, thereby creating favourable conditions for enterprises to import and export goods. Along with that, many other administrative procedures have also been significantly cut, such as the processing time of procedures for enterprise establishment, procedures for notifying seal samples and procedures for registering and updating bank account information has reduced by over 60% compared to the regulations. Currently, 67% of enterprises have made an online registration, exceeding 30% of the plan.

These reforms have significantly improved the business environment in the city. The number of newly established enterprises and FDI capital flows into the city increased sharply in the past year. In 2017, the city had over 40,600 newly established enterprises, up 12% over the previous year, bringing the total number of registered enterprises (excluding dissolved enterprises) to 332,862. In terms of FDI attraction in 2017, 850 projects were granted investment certificates and 220 projects had revised capital increased with a total for new and additional capital of over US $ 3 billion. If calculating capital attracted from capital contribution, and purchase of shares and contributed capital from domestic enterprises, the total FDI in 2017 was US $ 5.51 billion, up over 59%. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has nearly 7,280 FDI projects in operation with total investment capital including new and additional capital of US $ 43.62 billion.

According to the report, in 11 months of 2017, the city's export turnover reached over US $ 32 billion, up 16% over the same period. Excluding the value of crude oil, the turnover reached over US $ 29 billion, up 27%. The city’s import turnover in 11 months of 2017 achieved nearly US $ 39 billion, up 13.5% over the same period. Gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2017 was estimated at over VND 1,000,000 billions, up 8.25% (up 8.05% in the same period last year). The city’s economic structure continued to gradually increase the proportion of sectors with high quality, high added value and competitive advantages, which included 9 sectors: commerce, finance and banking, insurance, tourism, communication, logistics, science and technology, real estate, education and health. These 9 sectors accounted for the highest proportion of 52.8% of total GRDP. Of which, real estate, commerce and logistics contribution accounted for 28.9% of the total GRDP.

Increasing new motivation

Resolution on the pilot specialized mechanism for Ho Chi Minh City has just been adopted by the National Assembly at the meeting in November 2017, which consists of 18 topics in four fields: land management, investment, State finance – budget and the mechanism of authorization between different government levels and the income of cadres and civil servants under the city’s management. Meanwhile, Smart Urban Project targets to four main subjects of the city: government, people, enterprises and social organizations. For the government, the smart city shall meet the requirements for more accurate forecasts of growth and approve the development of e-government, connecting and sharing information and data to raise the operational efficiency in the fields. People will be provided with the utmost support to make best decisions and to interact easily with the government, thereby involving monitoring, managing and building the city. For the business community, the business environment will be more transparent and more convenient. Enterprises shall be provided with more information to make accurate business decisions. And for social organizations, the smart city shall create a feedback link for them to participate effectively in the city’s service provisions.

Particularly, in the field of administrative process, the electronic connection in the smart city will help people and businesses submit their applications and pay charges at home and then receive the results via the post office. Each agency that is the focal point in charge of receiving public services, have to actively contact with other relevant agencies to handle and return the final results. Accordingly, people and enterprises do not have to bring their applications to all the agencies.

HCM City: Domestic collection achieves VND 207,053 billion VCN – According to HCM City Taxation Department, by the end of 11/2017, the state revenue collected ...

HCM City is urgently implementing the necessary works to implement the specific mechanism and the project to build Ho Chi Minh City to become a smart city. This is considered as an important lever to make a breakthrough, thereby helping the city grow faster, stronger and more sustainably. According to the chairwoman of the HCM City People's Council Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, the approval of the National Assembly on the specific mechanism is like a "flag in hand". The remaining matter is how HCM city will make use of that lever, and which absolutely depends on the city’s leading agencies. However, for what the city has been doing during the past time, we can completely believe in a breakthrough in the future, bringing the city to be a modern one at regional level.