Training a technically competent workforce and speeding up infrastructure projects like bridges, roads and housing projects in HCM City will take center stage for the next three months, city government leaders say.

Outlining the city’s economic and social development efforts at a meeting with other leading officials on Monday, Le Thanh Hai, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said other key tasks included improving urban management, promoting foreign investment, fighting corruption and waste, and hastening the expansion of Sai Gon High-Tech Park.

Hai said the training and development of personnel was essential for the city’s economic growth and urged city agencies to step up training for high-tech sectors like information technology, telecommunications, electronics and bio-technology. The city’s Department of Planning and Investment had also expressed concern about the severe shortage of a high quality workforce, Hai said.

Intel, the US computer chip giant, for example, needs thousands of employees for its US$605 million computer chip assembly plant that will be built in Saigon High Tech Park.

This year, Hai said the city had told various branches to assign qualified, responsible personnel to important positions to effectively deal with corruption and bribery.

The city will also further simplify administrative procedures in such sensitive areas as land administration, housing and construction permits, and water supply.

He said continued administrative reform would help fight corruption and red tape in State government agencies.

The city’s other efforts, Hai said, included acceleration of site clearance to hasten urban development projects that have been delayed.

These include work along Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, the Thu Thiem new urban area in District 2 and housing development projects that would provide accommodation for 80,000 low-income people in the next five years.

The city leader also asked government agencies and district authorities to intensify their crackdown on drug use, prostitution, illegal gambling and other criminal acts to maintain public security and order in preparation for the National Party Congress, the second APEC Senior Officials Meeting in May and the APEC trade ministers meeting in June.

Hai said the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 9.5 per cent in the first quarter, slightly lower than the economic growth rate of 10 per cent in the same period last year.

Source: Vietnam News