Ho Chi Minh City: Promote service proportion to at least 70%

After merging three localities, the service sector in Ho Chi Minh City has decreased from over 60% to 51%. The city is developing a project to revive the service sector to match its potential and to orient the economic restructuring to increase the service sector to at least 70%.

Overview of the discussion. Photo: Organizing Committee

On the afternoon of September 12, the Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City organized a seminar "Ho Chi Minh City - A major service center of the country and the region with high-class, modern, high-value-added service industries: Orientation and breakthrough solutions".

Ho Chi Minh City aims to develop high-end, modern, high-value-added service industries. Accordingly, the city proposes to identify 5 strategic priority industry groups, 3 potential industry groups and 3 supporting industry groups to form a comprehensive service ecosystem of the city.

The strategic priority sectors include: Finance - banking - insurance; information - communication; transportation, warehousing and logistics; science - technology and innovation; tourism. These are sectors with strong spillover effects, playing the role of driving force for economic growth and raising the city's position on the international service map.

Potential sectors include: Education and training, healthcare and digital economic services. These are areas with high knowledge content and added value, which need increased investment to make a breakthrough, directly contributing to the quality of life and global competitiveness.

Supporting industries include: Trade - wholesale and retail; real estate; arts - sports - entertainment. These industries play a fundamental role, both serving internal needs and creating conditions for the development of other service industries.

Building Ho Chi Minh City into a modern, high-end service center with high added value is not only a strategic pillar in the growth model, but also an inevitable requirement to affirm Ho Chi Minh City's position in the global urban chain.

Based on its geo-economic advantages, outstanding economic scale and post-merger synergies, Ho Chi Minh City has all the conditions to strongly restructure and shift to knowledge, technology and creative service industries.

However, at the seminar, experts pointed out challenges in infrastructure, institutions, service quality, as well as uneven development between regions. These challenges can only be solved by a system of synchronous, breakthrough solutions so that the service industry of Ho Chi Minh City can aim to achieve its immediate goals, while creating a sustainable foundation for long-term progress in the future.

Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Dung speaks at the seminar. Photo: Organizing Committee

Speaking at the seminar, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Dung said that over the years, the service sector has continuously played the role of the main driving force for the city's economic growth, with a contribution of 60% - 65% in GRDP. After merging the three localities, Ho Chi Minh City only contributed nearly 25% of the national GDP and 51% of the city's GRDP came from the service sector.

However, the service sector structure still favors traditional sectors, while high-end, modern and high-value-added service sectors have not developed commensurate with their potential. The city's service sector (51% of GRDP) is still much lower than the 70-80% level in global service centers such as Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai. This limits regional competitiveness, especially in the context of ASEAN cities accelerating the shift to the digital economy, international financial services, global logistics and innovation.

In order to increase the proportion of services, there needs to be breakthrough solutions in institutions, policies, infrastructure and human resources to improve the competitiveness and added value of the service industry. In addition, it is necessary to focus on regional connectivity, digital transformation, and international cooperation in developing high-quality services in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City is researching and developing a project to “Build the city into a major service center of the country and the region with high-class, modern and high-value-added service industries”. This project aims to help the city continue to have solutions to overcome existing difficulties and limitations and create momentum for future breakthroughs according to the orientations and visions for the city’s development in general and the service industry in particular in the coming time.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/tp-ho-chi-minh-thuc-day-ty-trong-dich-vu-len-toi-thieu-70-715891.html