At the workshop with consultants about HCM City planning for 2021-2030 on February 28, Dung stressed that HCM City not only makes up nearly 20 percent of the country’s GDP and contributes 25 percent to state budget collections, but also is a special urban area, a gateway that connects localities of the region, and an economic locomotive with great influence.

However, HCM City has been facing challenges as its potential, strong points and creative breakthroughs still cannot be exploited effectively. The city’s economic growth has not corresponded with its potential, while the role of the economic locomotive is getting weaker. 

Dung said the city planning for the next development stage needs to identify the issues that need breakthroughs, and the business fields that need to be given priority to exploit potential and create momentum for growth.

Dung thinks there are three problems HCM City needs to focus on – traffic jams, environmental pollution, and floods.

HCM City needs to take the leading role, and act as the growth pole of the southern dynamic areas, become a globally connected city, and develop abreast cities in developed countries in the region and the world. 

The city needs to become a leading center for innovation, research and development and technology transfer in Vietnam and the region. This will create new values for the city.

“The city is now just like a locked spring and the task of planning is acting on it and making the spring bounce back. If the spring bounces back, the city will be able to develop very rapidly,” Dung said.

“It is necessary to find new driving forces for the city to make a strong rise,” he said, stressing that new way of thinking, new approaches, new vision, plus daring and groundbreaking moves, suitable to the growing trends around the world and the specific conditions of HCM City will give a push to development.

“HCM City needs to develop continuously and become the ‘pearl of the Far East’, as said by Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong during his visit to the city last year,” Dung said.

Planning scenarios

The first draft version of the HCMC planning in 2021-2030 designs two spacial development scenarios.

Under scenario 1, the city will comprise one central urban area (16 districts); and one city – Thu Duc – and five satellite urban areas (Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be and Can Gio). The existing suburban districts will be developed into inner districts.

Under scenario 2, the city will comprise one central urban area (15 districts), one city – Thu Duc – and three parallel urban areas (Cu Chi – Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be –Can Gio - district 7).

The draft planning has three economic growth scenarios.

Under scenario 1, HCM City will develop with the current trend with GRDP of 6.6 percent.

Under scenario 2, the city’s growth rate would be 8.3 percent.

Under scenario, the growth rate would be 10.5 percent.

It is estimated that the city would need VND2.23 quadrillion of investment capital in 2021-2025. In 2026-2030, with strong growth, the city would need VND4.2 quadrillion, which means total capital of VND6.4 quadrillion for the entire 2021-2030 period.

HCM City Mayor Phan Van Mai said HCM City planning needs to recognize all bottlenecks and problems of the city, and take full advantage of potential so that it can undertake important roles.

The head of the local government stressed that planning is not just for the development of the city alone, and the city cannot do it alone. It is necessary to design development in the context of regional links and international cooperation.

“We plan the city's development with a view toward international cooperation, from regional cooperation within Southeast Asia to international cooperation with the rest of the world, thereby defining the connecting role of the city and urban areas of other countries,” Mai said. 

Tran Thuong