In Resolution 60 of the 11th Conference of the 13th Central Executive Committee, the Central Committee agreed that the number of provincial-level administrative units after the merger would be 34 provinces and cities (including 28 provinces and 6 centrally-run cities).

Of which, 6 centrally-run cities include: Hanoi City; Hai Phong City (merging Hai Phong City and Hai Duong Province); Hue City; Da Nang City (merging Da Nang City and Quang Nam Province); Ho Chi Minh City (merging Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong Province, Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province); Can Tho City (merging Can Tho City, Soc Trang Province, Hau Giang Province).

According to preliminary data from the General Statistics Office, the scale of GRDP (Gross Regional Product) at current prices in 2023 of Ho Chi Minh City (including GRDP of Binh Duong, Ba Ria - Vung Tau) is estimated at 2,500,589 billion VND, ranking first in the country and nearly 2 times higher than GRDP of Hanoi, and accounting for about 24% of the country's GDP.

Hanoi ranked second with GRDP reaching 1,290,576 billion VND. Next was Hai Phong (including Hai Duong's GRDP) at 582,976 billion VND.

Ranked 4th is Can Tho City (including GRDP of Soc Trang and Hau Giang), reaching 251,658 billion VND; Da Nang City (including GRDP of Quang Nam) ranked 5th with 250,657 billion VND and ranked last in this group is Hue City with GRDP reaching 72,771 billion VND.

Accordingly, these 6 cities have a GRDP of nearly 5 million billion VND, accounting for about 50% of the country's GDP in 2023.

Similarly, the total domestic budget revenue of these 6 cities according to preliminary statistics in 2023 reached 911,417.4 billion VND, contributing about 62% to the national budget.

Ho Chi Minh City continues to lead in domestic budget revenue in 2023, reaching VND 395,110 billion, higher than Hanoi's VND 381,449 billion.

The remaining cities all had budget revenue of less than 100,000 billion VND. Specifically, Hai Phong reached 63,164 billion VND; Da Nang: 39,862.1 billion VND; Can Tho: 21,232.4 billion VND; Hue: 10,599.9 billion VND.

In terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI ), according to preliminary data in 2023, registered FDI capital invested in Ho Chi Minh City reached more than 8 billion USD, the highest in this group of 6 cities.

Hai Phong ranked second with registered FDI capital in 2023 reaching more than 4.93 billion USD.

The amount of FDI capital registered for investment in 2023 in the remaining cities recorded quite modest levels, such as: Hanoi with 643 million USD; Da Nang 261.4 million USD; Can Tho 178.4 million USD and Hue only 100 million USD.

Regarding goods exports in 2023, preliminary statistics from the Customs Department show that Ho Chi Minh City continues to lead with an export turnover of nearly 79.12 billion USD, higher than the total export turnover of Hanoi (nearly 16.66 billion USD), Hai Phong (over 36.25 billion USD), Da Nang (nearly 3.68 billion USD), Can Tho (nearly 3.7 billion USD) and Hue (nearly 1.12 billion USD) combined.

Accordingly, the estimated export turnover of 6 centrally-run cities will reach about 140.52 billion USD, accounting for 39.61% of the country's total export turnover in 2023.

(The article uses data from the Socio-Economic Data of 63 provinces and centrally run cities 2019-2023; data in the 2023 Statistical Yearbook of the General Statistics Office; Preliminary import-export statistical report of the Customs Department; Budget revenue data provided by Hai Duong province and announced by Hai Phong).

* In the article, data of 6 centrally-run cities (after the merger) is combined with the provinces according to the merger arrangement in Resolution 60 of the 11th Conference of the 13th Central Executive Committee.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/sau-sap-nhap-6-thanh-pho-truc-thuoc-trung-uong-co-quy-mo-lon-the-nao-2391923.html