Can Tho assesses growth in 2025 and sets GRDP target of 10-10.5% in 2026

(Chinhphu.vn) - On the morning of December 6, the People's Committee of Can Tho City held a conference to evaluate the results of implementing the economic growth scenario in 2025 and deploy tasks and solutions in 2026. Although the growth rate only reached 7.23% - lower than the set target, the City assessed that this was still a great effort in the context of administrative boundary arrangement and many internal limitations, especially problems with land procedures, industrial production and the weak recovery of services.

Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Truong Canh Tuyen speaks at the Conference - Photo: VGP/LS

Growth lower than expected but reflects citywide efforts

The conference was co-chaired by Chairman of Can Tho City People's Council Dong Van Thanh and Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Truong Canh Tuyen with the participation of representatives of departments, branches and localities.

Reporting at the Conference, Mr. Vo Nhut Quang, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance of Can Tho City, said that the city's economic growth in 2025 will only reach 7.23% , 2.77% less than the target scenario and 1.07% lower than the baseline scenario.

According to the Department of Finance, although the growth rate did not meet expectations, this result clearly demonstrated the efforts of the Party Committee, government, businesses and people of the city in the context of the administrative apparatus having just been rearranged. This result also partly reflects the development situation of Can Tho in the context of many economic sectors experiencing fluctuations after the administrative boundary arrangement period.

Looking at the development of many years, Can Tho's growth is showing a clear recovery trend. In the period 2011-2015 , the city grew at an average of 5.97%/year ; in the period 2016-2020 , the average growth rate decreased to 4.97%/year ; entering the period 2021-2025 , the average growth rate reached 6.86%/year . Of which, the officially updated growth rate in 2023 reached 6.42% , in 2024 it was estimated at 7.41% and in 2025 it reached 7.23% as reported at the Conference.

The economic structure continues to shift in a positive direction, with GDP per capita and labor productivity both increasing compared to the same period in 2024. These are signs of the city's perseverance and determination, although there are still many problems that need to be addressed in the coming time.

Agriculture is still the 'mainstay', industry declines sharply

One of the notable points at the Conference was the clear disparity between economic sectors. Industry, which was expected to lead growth, recorded a sharper decline than agriculture, especially with electricity output falling sharply in October and November 2025. This situation led to a general decline in the entire industrial sector.

The main reasons identified include: fluctuations in input material prices, shortages of production materials, difficulties in accessing capital, high production costs and fierce competition in the export market in terms of price and design. Along with that, the purchasing power of the domestic market has not improved, while logistics costs and tariffs continue to create great pressure, making it difficult for products to compete.

Notably, the electricity, gas, hot water, steam and air conditioning production and distribution industry decreased by 2.63% year-on-year, a sharp decline, 6.73% lower than the growth scenario of 4.10% .

Meanwhile, agriculture continued to assert its role as the "pillar" of the economy with the added value of the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector increasing by 3.79% , 0.10% lower than the city's forecast but 0.26% higher than the 10% growth scenario. The sector contributed 0.85 percentage points to the overall growth of the economy.

Many sectors such as aquaculture and seafood processing maintained stable growth and continued to play a role as a sustainable foundation in the context of difficulties in the industrial and service sectors.

Dr. Ngo Anh Tin, Director of the Department of Science and Technology: It is necessary to speed up the progress of calculating land use fees and granting land use right certificates to people - Photo: VGP/LS

Services increased by 8.79% but did not create a breakthrough, tourism was affected

The service sector - which accounts for a large proportion of the city's economic structure - recorded an increase of 8.79% , but was still 0.85% lower than the local scenario and 3.44% lower than the 10% growth scenario.

According to analysis, the service sector has recovered but lacked breakthroughs. Consumer demand has decreased, businesses are still cautious, not bold enough to invest in expanding scale or innovating technology. These factors have prevented the service sector from recording a strong recovery as expected.

Of which, accommodation and catering services increased by 10.90% , 3.24% lower than the scenario. Many objective factors have negatively impacted the tourism industry, including: prolonged storms limiting tourism activities; slow recovery of international visitors; high tides rising to alarming levels on many routes, forcing some famous tourist destinations to reduce operations, affecting revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Mr. Ha Vu Son, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Can Tho City, said that although tourism services have grown, revenue is still not commensurate with the potential. He emphasized: "If a tourist comes to Can Tho to travel, each person spends about 500,000 VND , the city's tourism industry will have a revenue of about 60,000 billion VND , contributing greatly to the value of the trade and service sector. To do this, the city must have many outstanding and unique tourism products."

Land procedures – the 'bottleneck' discouraging investors

At the conference, many delegates agreed that land procedures are the biggest "bottleneck" hindering the city's growth.

Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Nguyen Van Khoi frankly pointed out the reality: " Many investors come to learn carefully and then 'run away' because they cannot solve this problem ." He said that this is a key issue, because public investment and private investment are both directly related to land resources.

Sharing the same view, Vice Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Nguyen Van Hoa emphasized the need for breakthrough solutions to remove obstacles in private investment projects. According to him, it is necessary to assign specific responsibilities to each sector and unit, avoiding the situation of asking for opinions "roundabout" between departments and branches, which is time-consuming. At the same time, the city needs to support businesses in terms of labor and credit to promote production and business.

Dr. Ngo Anh Tin, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, suggested that the city should make efforts to disburse capital for basic construction, accelerate public investment projects, and work directly with commercial banks to increase money supply and credit balance. He also emphasized the need to speed up the progress of calculating land use fees and issuing land use right certificates to people; at the same time, promptly calculate prices and announce land use fee collection for potential real estate projects.

Requires 'dare to think, dare to do' to aim for GRDP target of 10–10.5%

Chairman of the People's Council of Can Tho City Dong Van Thanh commented that the growth rate of 7.23% is not commensurate with the city's potential and is something worth considering for the leadership team, cadres and civil servants. He said that this limitation is partly due to the subjective cause of the lack of strong leadership and direction of some department leaders and the delay of some cadres and civil servants.

Concluding the Conference, Chairman of the People's Committee of Can Tho City Truong Canh Tuyen highly appreciated the efforts of the sectors in implementing the tasks in 2025 but said that the level of effort still did not meet the requirements. The city will submit to the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee and the People's Council a scenario of GRDP growth of 10-10.5% in 2026.

He requested departments, branches and localities to focus on removing difficulties, building development plans suitable for each field; assigning clear tasks to each cadre, promoting the spirit of " dare to think, dare to do, not avoid responsibility "; speeding up disbursement of capital for basic construction and progress of public investment projects from the beginning of 2026; synthesizing and solving difficulties of enterprises; removing obstacles in land planning; speeding up budget collection from land and resettlement.

The Chairman of the City People's Committee also assigned the responsibility to the Vice Chairmen of the People's Committee to closely direct the tasks of economic development, GRDP growth and the areas in charge; at the same time, boldly criticize and strictly handle officials who avoid work, fear responsibility or delay progress due to the reason of merging the apparatus.

Le Son

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/can-tho-danh-gia-tang-truong-2025-va-dat-muc-tieu-grdp-10105-nam-2026-102251206140932413.htm