An aerial eye view of downtown HCMC. To become a regional and global financial hub, the city needs to develop its financial services properly

Speaking at a press briefing today, October 8, to introduce a forthcoming economic forum, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, dean of Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management, said that since 1992, the HCMC People’s Committee has organized trips to Shanghai, where a project was set up to turn the Chinese city into a regional financial center, to learn from their experience.

Four years later, the HCMC government had a similar project. Today, Shanghai is a regional financial hub and is poised to reach international standards shortly. However, the Vietnamese metropolis is going back to the drawing board.

The Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management is now serving as a consulting unit for the HCMC government to devise a scheme to make the city a financial hub.

At the request of the city government, the HCMC Department of Home Affairs, the HCMC Business Association, the HCMC Finance and Investment Company and Fulbright Vietnam will work together to organize the HCMC Economic Forum 2019 on October 18.

The forum is aimed at seeking feedback from experts and businesses to streamline the financial center scheme.

In response to the Saigon Times’ question on challenges affecting this transformation, Anh said that the greatest challenge is remaining competitive as many cities and countries wish to become financial centers at regional and global levels.

To be successful, a national policy covering the legal framework and institutions needed for the scheme should be created, he remarked.

Also, the city government needs to change its mindset, vision and strategy to enable the transformation process, with further attention being given to financial services. Other prerequisites are traffic infrastructure, finance, human resources and policies that encourage the involvement of the business community.

According to the organizers, the forum is expected to bring together some 800 delegates, including government leaders, representatives of embassies and financial experts at home and abroad.

It will take place at the White Palace Convention Center at 108 Pham Van Dong Street in Hiep Binh Chanh Ward of Thu Duc District.

Before the launch of the event, the organizers will match local and foreign firms to help them sound out cooperation opportunities. SGT