Hanoi accelerates, striving for a double-digit growth target by 2026

Hanoi accelerates, striving for a double-digit growth target by 2026. (Photo: Nguyet Anh)

On the afternoon of October 5, the People's Committee of Hanoi held a press conference to provide information on the socio-economic situation in the third quarter of 2026.

Linking Growth with Social Welfare

The report from the People's Committee of Hanoi on the socio-economic development in the first nine months and key tasks for the last three months of 2026 shows that leadership, direction, and management efforts continue to innovate, focusing on resolving difficulties and promoting growth drivers.

The year 2026 marks the first year of implementing the socio-economic development goals and tasks for the 2026-2030 period, laying a crucial foundation for the capital to enter a phase of rapid and sustainable growth. The city has set a GRDP growth target of 11% or more for 2026.

The city administration has issued Directive No. 17/CT-UBND, shifting the management approach to goal-oriented governance, quantifying output results, and assigning specific responsibilities to each focal point. In the third quarter, the city focused on resolving difficulties in production and business; promoting public and private investment and FDI to accelerate strategic infrastructure projects; addressing long-standing projects, reclaiming inefficient projects, ensuring the supply of construction materials, and promoting a stable real estate and social housing market.

As a result, the GRDP in the third quarter of 2026 is estimated to increase by 10.02%, marking the first double-digit growth of the year and the highest increase among the quarters of 2026, significantly surpassing the 8.20% growth of the third quarter of 2025. Overall, the GRDP increased by 8.85% over nine months, higher than the 7.92% growth in the same period in 2025 and exceeding the first-half results.

In particular, the service sector increased by 9.14%; industry and construction grew by 8.8%; and product tax minus product subsidies rose by 8.28%. Notably, construction grew by 10.89%, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors. The nine-month GRDP at current prices reached approximately 1,294.9 trillion VND; the economic structure continues to shift towards services, with the service sector accounting for 67.64% and industry and construction accounting for 20.60%.

The service sector continues to be the largest pillar of the economy, contributing over 6 percentage points to the nine-month growth. Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue reached 810.9 trillion VND, up 15.6% year-on-year. Tourism welcomed about 27.5 million visitors, an increase of 6.2%; among them, international visitors reached 6.67 million, up 22%. Total tourism revenue reached 113.2 trillion VND, up 13.3%.

Investment and construction continue to accelerate. Total social investment capital for nine months reached 451.4 trillion VND, up 19% year-on-year; the third quarter alone reached about 194.6 trillion VND, up 24.5%. Cumulative disbursement by September 30 reached 115.574 trillion VND, accounting for 96.32% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister and 69.91% of the city's plan to date.

Transportation and urban infrastructure continue to be identified as important drivers. The city is concretising the Capital's master plan by developing 125 planning levels and urging the implementation of 50 investment promotion memorandums. Among them, 84 strategic infrastructure projects with a total scale of 330.458 trillion VND are being accelerated. The Ring Road 4 disbursement reached 88.30%; the Nhon - Hanoi Station railway line has completed tunnel drilling; major bridges over the Red River are being actively implemented. Along with that, 10/10 urgent drainage projects have been effectively implemented, helping reduce flooding.

Alongside economic development, social welfare continues to be ensured. The city plans to provide 24,000 social housing units in 2026. A total of 160,981 workers have been employed, reaching 94.14% of the plan; the health insurance coverage rate reached 96.48%.

However, the city also faces numerous challenges. To achieve the annual GRDP target of over 11%, the fourth-quarter value must be substantial. The number of businesses temporarily suspending operations and dissolving remains high, at 26.1 thousand and 10.6 thousand, respectively. Inventory in the processing and manufacturing sector increased by 26.5% by the end of September. Exports have not met expectations as some key product groups have declined. Meanwhile, the average CPI over nine months increased by 4.91%, and prices of housing, electricity, water, education, and construction materials rose significantly, adding pressure on production costs and purchasing power.

Chief of Office and Spokesperson of the People's Committee of Hanoi, Nguyen Tien Thiet, chaired the press conference. (Photo: Dinh Hiep)

Accelerating in the 4th quarter

In the last three months of the year, Hanoi has identified its main focus as achieving the annual GRDP growth target of “double digits”. Based on the third-quarter growth results, the city will review the remaining growth, clearly determine the additional value needed to be created in the fourth quarter, and break down scenarios into high, medium, and low options for each department, sector, and the People's Committees of communes and wards.

Key sectors, projects, and indicators will be regularly monitored to address emerging difficulties promptly. Among them, public investment, construction, and key projects are identified as having the highest proactive momentum in the fourth quarter. The city continues to assign and track disbursement progress for each investor and project, focusing on resolving bottlenecks in site clearance, land acquisition, investment procedures, material sourcing, and construction organisation.

Alongside this, transportation projects, urban railways, bridges over the Red River, flood prevention, and major infrastructure projects will be accelerated. The city also vigorously promotes private investment and FDI, and accelerates projects through investment policies and commitments to quickly convert them into actual capital, construction volume, and new production capacity.

For non-budget projects with obstacles, the city requires urgent resolution; preparing clean land funds, industrial zones, and clusters; announcing a list of projects calling for investment and focusing on attracting high-quality FDI in high technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, research and development, processing, and manufacturing industries.

Industrial production, exports, and business support remain the focus. The city will work directly with businesses, especially large industrial enterprises, export enterprises, and projects capable of increasing capacity in the fourth quarter, to immediately address difficulties in credit, land, raw materials, energy, labour, logistics, and investment procedures. The goal is to increase actual output, bring new production lines and projects into operation, and maximise existing capacity.

Additionally, the city will create a peak period to stimulate consumption, trade, tourism, and cultural industries; organise promotional programs, fairs, supply-demand connections, and e-commerce; develop the night economy; build new tourism products; and increase tourists' length of stay and spending.

The city also focuses on unblocking and effectively utilising financial, credit, and land resources; managing budget revenue and expenditure tightly, striving to achieve the highest revenue estimates, prioritising resources for development investment and urgent tasks that directly impact growth.

In the fields of science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, the city focuses on resolving obstacles to the use and disbursement of funds and quickly implementing new mechanisms of the Capital Law and resolutions of the city's People's Council. Administrative procedure reform, decentralisation, authorisation, shortening the processing time for investment documents, and supporting businesses will continue to be promoted, ensuring that new mechanisms truly become resources and growth drivers.

In particular, the city requires tighter discipline, order, and execution responsibility. In the context of the short time remaining in the fourth quarter, all levels and sectors must continue to implement the motto “clear goals, clear tasks, clear leading agency, clear progress, clear output results”, assigning specific targets to each department, sector, commune, ward, and each investor; regularly checking progress, immediately addressing delayed tasks, linking the responsibility of the head with the implementation results.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, Tran Luu Hoa, responded at the press conference. (Photo: Dinh Hiep)

Strict Handling of Unauthorised Fees in Schools

Regarding reports on revenue and expenditure at some educational institutions, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Education and Training Tran Luu Hoa stated that, following directives from the Ministry of Education and Training and the city People's Committee, the Department has issued several documents from the beginning of the academic year to rectify and strengthen the management of revenue and expenditure in schools.

Accordingly, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training has clearly defined the responsibilities of the head of the educational institution, who is accountable for the school's revenue and expenditure, ensuring that all collections and expenditures comply with regulations.

Ms. Tran Luu Hoa emphasised: “No fees outside the regulations are allowed; no collection on behalf of others, and especially no collection under the guise of the Parent Representative Board for unauthorised fees.”

Additionally, the Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training noted that the Ministry of Education and Training has just issued a circular on the activities of the Parent Representative Board. In this spirit, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training hopes that agencies, organisations, and parents will continue to strengthen supervision, support schools, and promptly detect and report units that still exhibit signs of unauthorised revenue and expenditure.

For some units that reported revenue and expenditure issues, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training has sent documents to communes and wards for inspection and verification in accordance with the hierarchy. Simultaneously, in October 2026, the Department developed an inspection plan and established task forces to check the units.

According to Deputy Director Tran Luu Hoa, the Department's stance is to resolutely handle violations within its authority or report them to competent authorities for handling in accordance with regulations.

Ms. Tran Luu Hoa affirmed that rectifying revenue and expenditure in educational institutions aims to ensure regulatory compliance while limiting inappropriate fees that cause unnecessary frustration among parents and society.

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