A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR: FOR HO CHI MINH CITY

摘要

Ho Chi Minh City's GDP growth is well over the national average of 8.48 per cent. With the growth, the city brought in VND 228.79 trillion (USD 14.3 billion) in GDP value in the year, contributing 21.7 per cent of the country's total GDP. This indicated that after a year in the WTO, Ho Chi Minh City's economy has made a breakthrough, especially in investment and services. Over the past time, Ho Chi Minh City's trade and services activities have strongly developed with the participation of many economic sectors. The services sector not only maintains the top position in the city's GDP structure, making up 52.5 per cent, but also posted the highest increase of 14.3 per cent. Total retail sales and services reached VND167.03 billion, up 26.6 per cent on-year. The domestic market became more competitive with various goods. The retail sector saw remarkable change, preparing for Vietnam to open its service market in 2009. Many retail traders in the city have invested in infrastructure development, service quality and retail network expansion. The private sector's retail sales and services market accounted for 36 per cent, to the previous years' level of 21 -22 per cent, demonstrating the expansion of the sector. Many enterprises have built specialised business networks bearing their own trademarks. This is also the