The city said in a report delivered at a meeting on Wednesday that it was planning to have 60,000 new enterprises this year and increase the number of enterprises citywide to 500,000 by 2020.

 

Data shows local private and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) far outdid SOEs in 2005-2014 in terms of contribution to the city’s GRDP. The gap of GRDP contribution between the state and private corporate sectors has steadily widened.

 

In 2005, when the GRDP of the city was VND165 trillion, nearly VND58 trillion of it came from SOEs while private enterprises contributed VND43.3 trillion and FIEs VND36 trillion.

 

In 2014, HCMC’s total GRDP stood at VND852 trillion, with VND202 trillion of it sourced from the foreign-invested sector and VND422 trillion from the domestic private sector.

 

In 2011-2015, investments by non-state enterprises accounted for some 61% of the total, while SOEs and FIEs represented 21% and 18% respectively, according to data from the HCMC Institute for Development Studies.

 

To achieve the target of having 60,000 startups this year, the city government has pledged to carry out administrative reforms to make life easier for businesses, said a source from the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment.

 

City and district authorities will organize regular public dialogues, at least twice a year, between their leaders and the business community.

 

City agencies will have to abolish about 30% of their meetings to have more time to visit enterprises and listen to their recommendations. Administrative costs should be brought down to ease the business cost burden.

 

Tran Thi Binh Minh, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Investment, said that to household businesses to upgrade themselves to companies, the city will consider shortening the time required for issuance of a business registration certificate to a single day.

 

Household businesses will not have to pay any fees for registration of conversion into companies and all costs arising from their tax code registrations will be exempted in the first year. In addition, their staff will be offered training courses to improve their knowledge of startups and accounting while low-interest loans will be made available for them.

 

HCMC will help all converted enterprises to find outlets for their products on the domestic market, with priority given to small and medium businesses that set up shop in export processing zones and industrial parks in the city, said Minh.

 

HCMC vice chairman Le Thanh Liem said there were now 302,000 firms active in the city.