The southern city of Can Tho posted the highest economic growth rate among centrally-run cities in the first half of this year.

Directorof the municipal Statistics Department Le Ngoc Bay said the city'sgrowth was estimated at about 9.2 percent, up 8.26 percent annually, ascompared to the national rate of 6.28 percent, Hanoi's 7.8 percent, HaiPhong's 9.12 percent, and Da Nang's 8.15 percent, as well as HCM City's8.55 percent.

Can Tho's exemplary economic performance is credited to fewer bureaucratic procedures and stable market prices.

During the period, Can Tho also attracted nine new projects worth 29 million USD to its processing and industrial zones.

Thecity's total goods sales and services value topped 76.35 trillion VND(3.63 billion USD), marking a yearly rise of 14 percent, more than 42.2trillion VND (2 billion USD) of which was from the retail and servicesectors.

Export earnings from farm produce, garment and handicrafts were also growing, ranging from 11.5 to 25 percent.

Onthe tourism front, the city welcomed about one million visitors,including more than 103,500 foreigners, and raked in 970 billion VND(46.1 million USD), up 85 percent.

It contributed more than 8.8 trillion VND (419 million USD) to the State budget, up 50 percent from the same period last year.-VNA