Da Nang fails to hit growth targets
Da Nang fails to hit growth targets
Central Da Nang City achieved low results on seven out of 11 annual socio-economic development targets, according to a year-end report announced at the city's People's Council meeting yesterday.
The report blamed the poor showing on slow socio-economic development caused by the worldwide economic downturn, which lowered the city's growth rate, service production value, industrial production and construction and export turn-over. These factors also negatively affected the State budget, which in turn diminished funds for investment and job creation.
"The city had a difficult time with social-economic development due to the global economic crisis. Enterprises faced bankruptcy and had to deal with massive inventories and high interest rates," the city's chairman Van Huu Chien said at the meeting.
"Last year, the city set a target of 13 per cent for economic growth, but we could only achieve 9.1 per cent," Chien said, adding that the city's State budget revenue was only VND10.9 trillion (US$519 million) –81 per cent of what was hoped for.
"We have created 28,000 jobs, only 86 per cent of the target for the whole year," Chien said.
He also complained that the real estate sector – a major source of revenue for the city - has been stagnant.
The city's Small-and Medium-d Enterprises Association reported that over 4,100 of the 14,000 enterprises in the city had gone bankrupt since 2009.
However, the city achieved growth in the fields of tourism, foreign direct investment and social housing for the poor.
Da Nang attracted 241 FDI projects with total capital of $3.6 billion, while the tourism sector hosted over 2.6 million tourists, bringing in VND2.6 trillion ($124 million).
The city has made available 7,700 apartments for low-income residents and rooms for 6,000 students.
At the two-day meeting, the city's people's council focused on social-economic development plans for 2013 as well as approving a vote of confidence for the council's members.
vietnamnews
