Vietnam Today

The National Assembly (NA) has approved a Resolution on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho city. The city is permitted to borrow up to 60 per cent of its budget revenue and can decide on changing the land use purpose of rice land of less than 500 ha. The pilot will begin on March 1.

The National Assembly (NA) has approved a Resolution on investment in the Eastern North-South Expressway project in the 2021-2025 period. The project is 729 km in length and divided into 12 component projects operating independently in the public investment form, with total capital of nearly VND147 trillion ($6.5 billion).

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai and Canada’s Chief Trade Commissioner and Assistant Deputy Minister at Global Affairs Canada Sara Wilshaw signed an MoU on January 11 establishing a Joint Economic Committee between the two countries. They aim to establish a comprehensive cooperation framework through the joint committee mechanism to facilitate trade and investment and support enterprises from both countries.

A series of activities in celebration of National Tourism Year 2022 will be held in central Quang Nam province and elsewhere and will mark the recovery and development of Vietnam’s tourism industry. Severely damaged by Covid-19, the tourism sector faced many challenges in 2021, with domestic tourists totaling just 40 million, down 29 per cent compared to 2020.

Ho Chi Minh City has developed a socio-economic development plan for 2022 with 19 targets, of which gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth is to reach 6-6.5 per cent. Other targets include restoring the service economy, promoting industrial development, developing transport infrastructure, and speeding up housing construction, among others.

Amendments to the Law on Housing are a “large and difficult” issue because they need to promote development investment, but if not done properly could cause losses of land resources, according to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung. He proposed developing a separate pilot project, for submission to the National Assembly in May.