On July 9, Mr. Tran Van Lau, Deputy Secretary of Can Tho City Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of Can Tho City, chaired a meeting to review the city’s 2025 economic growth scenarios following the administrative merger. The city’s Vice Chairpersons, leaders of departments, agencies, and relevant units, attended the meeting.
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Economic performance in the first half of the year showed promising signs of recovery, with Can Tho’s growth rate reaching 7.87%, surpassing the national average of 7.52%. This result highlights the city’s efforts in economic governance and removing barriers to production and business activities. However, this figure remains 0.74 percentage points lower than the government’s target of 8.61%, indicating significant growth potential ahead but also presenting considerable challenges for the second half of the year. The city must implement robust solutions to maintain momentum and fulfill its annual targets.
In preparation for the acceleration phase, Can Tho has developed various economic growth scenarios for 2025. The high-growth scenario sets an ambitious target of 10.11% in line with the national goal, requiring a minimum 12.13% growth rate in the latter half of the year. Notably, the industrial and construction sectors would need to grow by nearly 19%. The feasible scenario aims for a full-year growth rate of 9.16%, necessitating a 10.31% increase in the second half, balancing rapid growth with sustainable development and aligning with social, environmental, and national defense-security objectives.
During the meeting, delegates openly analyzed the opportunities and challenges, proposing detailed, sector-specific solutions to ensure feasibility and support the achievement of socio-economic development goals for 2025. Priorities include promoting catalytic projects with widespread impacts, accelerating public investment disbursement, removing business obstacles, and unlocking resources through socialization and private investment.
Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Tran Van Lau delivered a directive speech at the conference.
Chairman Tran Van Lau concluded the meeting by emphasizing that the city’s 2025 growth scenarios must be grounded in reality, ensuring feasibility and avoiding unrealistic numerical targets. Only viable projects with substantial contributions to growth should be selected. He urged restructuring the agricultural sector toward reduced area but increased quality, focusing on high-tech agriculture with higher added value. He also called for further industry, services, urbanization, and logistics development, capitalizing on ongoing expressway and key infrastructure projects.
In particular, the Chairman stressed the importance of developing the “smokeless industry” – tourism – as a fast-growing and sustainable revenue source for the city. He tasked departments and agencies with reviewing tourism infrastructure and services, establishing linked tourism chains, and stepping up investment promotion to drive real demand and expand air routes connecting Can Tho with domestic and international destinations.
As the central hub of the Mekong Delta region, Can Tho City will continue leveraging its geo-economic advantages, mobilizing investment resources effectively, and creating breakthroughs in development, positioning itself as the region’s center for industry, commerce, services, tourism, and logistics, and contributing significantly to national economic growth.