Discussing the direction of commercial development for Ho Chi Minh City, a 'megacity'.

Following the merger of Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Duong into Ho Chi Minh City on July 1st, the city is considered a "megacity" of the country and the region. So what solutions are needed to give the commercial sector of this "megacity" Ho Chi Minh City opportunities and space for development in this new era?

The seminar was attended by hundreds of delegates - Photo: QUANG DINH

Under the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, on the afternoon of July 11th, in Vung Tau ward, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade and Tuoi Tre newspaper organized a seminar titled "Ho Chi Minh City's Development Space - Driving Forces from Building Supply Chains and Retail."

The seminar was sponsored by Informa Markets Vietnam, M-Service Joint Stock Company, and WTC Binh Duong Co., Ltd.

Opening the discussion, Mr. Bui Ta Hoang Vu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade, happily stated that great opportunities are opening up for the city's trade sector following the merger of the three provinces and cities.

Ho Chi Minh City, recently compared to Shanghai, is poised to become an emerging shopping and consumer hub in East Asia.

This assessment was made by expert Do Thien Anh Tuan from the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management at a seminar. Following the merger with Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, the development space of the new Ho Chi Minh City has expanded unprecedentedly. The new Ho Chi Minh City has the full potential to aim for a leading shopping and consumer center in East Asia.

According to Mr. Tuan, Ho Chi Minh City has now become a multi-polar megacity, combining a traditional administrative, financial, and consumer center with a dynamic industrial, logistics, and seaport region.

In terms of scale, the total geographical area of ​​the new city reaches approximately 6,772 km², more than 3.2 times the area of ​​the old Ho Chi Minh City, about 25 times the size of Kuala Lumpur or Taipei, around 10 times the size of Singapore, Jakarta, and Seoul; 4.3 times the size of Bangkok and equivalent to Shanghai, placing Ho Chi Minh City among the largest cities in East Asia.

With an official population of 14 million, accounting for approximately 13.5% of the country's total population, comparable to Tokyo and surpassing Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City possesses a massive domestic consumer market. In terms of economic scale, Ho Chi Minh City has achieved a GRDP of approximately US$120 billion, equivalent to 23.5% of the national GDP, affirming its role as the leading economic hub and center of Vietnam.

The significant increase in population, income, and living standards following the merger considerably boosted the city's purchasing power and consumption capacity.

Ho Chi Minh City, which previously led the country in total retail sales with over 1.2 trillion VND, has now been supplemented by sales from Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau.

The demographic structure of the new Ho Chi Minh City also reflects a high degree of urbanization, with the middle and near-middle classes accounting for a large proportion.

According to Mr. Tuan, from a market perspective, Ho Chi Minh City after the merger has all the conditions to become the most diverse consumer and service center in Vietnam, acting as both a distribution hub and a leader in national consumer tastes.

Dr. Do Thien Anh Tuan - Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management, presented a paper titled "Positioning the Commercial Role of Ho Chi Minh City After the Merger - Analyzing Production and Consumption Scale and the Ability to Participate in the National Value Chain" - Photo: QUANG DINH

At the regional level, Ho Chi Minh City is beginning to join the group of megacities that serve as regional trade and logistics centers, comparable in role to important cities such as Singapore, Bangkok, or Shanghai.

Ho Chi Minh City currently boasts a dense network of shopping malls, supermarkets, wholesale markets, and a modern retail distribution system. Integration with Binh Duong further enhances its role as an industrial hub with warehousing areas and logistics clusters in Song Than, VSIP, Bau Bang, etc.

Meanwhile, Ba Ria - Vung Tau offers the Cai Mep - Thi Vai deep-water port system, capable of directly connecting with international shipping routes.

Mr. Tuan believes that connecting these three localities allows the newly developed Ho Chi Minh City to create a closed-loop ecosystem of trade, logistics, and production, flexibly meeting both domestic and export markets.

Ho Chi Minh City has long been the largest e-commerce hub in the country, and it now has the perfect foundation to aim for the emerging shopping and consumer center model of Southeast Asia, and even East Asia.

Import and export goods at Cat Lai Port, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: QUANG DINH

Subsequent presentations by digital transformation experts, businesspeople, and market researchers highlighted the significant advantages of Ho Chi Minh City as a megacity in terms of consumer spending. Mr. Le Hoang Long, representative of NielsenIQ Vietnam Co., Ltd., stated that the purchasing power of the former Ho Chi Minh City was much greater than that of Hanoi . And now, with the addition of the two merged provinces, it will be even greater.

Mr. Long suggested that to unlock the purchasing power of the new megacity of Ho Chi Minh City, attention should be paid to "local consumption characteristics," "supply chain saturation," and "consumption differentiation." He also noted the disparity in consumption between the old Ho Chi Minh City and the other two provinces.

Mr. Le Hoang Long - Director of Retail Division, NielsenIQ Vietnam Co., Ltd., presented a paper titled "Consumer Data and Retail Trends in Ho Chi Minh City - Opportunities to Shape the Supply Chain" - Photo: QUANG DINH

Ms. Tran Mong Tuyen, Senior Project Manager at Informa Markets Vietnam, also shared some interesting information at the seminar. She emphasized the importance of developing the exhibition industry because it plays a crucial role in consumer spending and shopping due to its ripple effect.

In Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam, this sector lacks internationally standardized venues and is currently fragmented and uncoordinated. Therefore, government support is needed to transform exhibitions into a key economic sector.

"Ho Chi Minh City has great potential to become a major exhibition center in the region and needs a synchronized plan to connect the metro, airport, and exhibition venues," Ms. Tuyen said.

Ms. Tran Mong Tuyen - Senior Project Manager, Informa Markets Vietnam, presented a paper at the exhibition "Trade Fairs in New Urban Spaces: From Industrial Hubs to Shopping Centers and Connecting to International Markets" - Photo: QUANG DINH

Meanwhile, Mr. Phan Huy Chi, Senior Advisor to the Vietnam Commodity Exchange, highlighted a very topical issue regarding Vietnamese goods today: "Despite numerous inspections and tests, the quality of goods is not guaranteed." He emphasized the crucial role of the Commodity Exchange in connecting supply and demand and mitigating price risks.

"The space in Ho Chi Minh City after the merger is vast, with a seaport, logistics system, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to redesign the commercial development space," Mr. Chi proposed.

Mr. Phan Huy Chi - Senior Advisor to the Vietnam Commodity Exchange - presented a paper on Modern Trade and the Central Role of Commodity Exchanges - Photo: QUANG DINH

We need to make good use of waterway logistics.

Mr. Truong Tan Loc, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City Logistics Association (HLA), proposed creating a mechanism through technology to make Ho Chi Minh City comparable to Singapore and Hong Kong, or a free trade zone.

The Cai Mep Thi Vai port in the former Ba Ria - Vung Tau, the port in Binh Duong, and the ports in Ho Chi Minh City should be merged into one. This idea hasn't been considered before, but now it must be thought about to create a common resource.

Ho Chi Minh City must certainly become an international transshipment port cluster, with Cai Mep Thi Vai and Can Gio ports further connected, and other ports also connected. In addition, more investment and construction should be made in inland waterways along the rivers.

The connections between Vung Tau and the former Ho Chi Minh City are numerous but still face many challenges. Strengthening waterway connections between these three former localities would be a huge advantage that no other country possesses.

Therefore, it is necessary to invest in an offshore river system, large barges, inland waterways... only then can Ho Chi Minh City take off and reduce the pressure on its congested road network.

Barges and inland waterways are not keeping up with transportation demands. With a significant increase in consumption in the near future, if inland waterways are properly utilized and further research is conducted on connecting them with roads, it will be a major advantage.

Mr. Truong Tan Loc - Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Logistics Association (HLA) - Photo: QUANG DINH

Defining the commercial role of the new Ho Chi Minh City.

The program was attended by hundreds of delegates representing central and local ministries and agencies; leading experts in the field of trade, relevant associations; representatives of corporations, general companies, and businesses operating in the fields of manufacturing, distribution, logistics, e-commerce, retail, commercial infrastructure investment, and logistics…

The seminar is of significant and practical importance to the trade, supply chain, and retail sectors of Ho Chi Minh City in the new era.

The event will include in-depth, practical presentations by economic and trade experts and market research firms. The seminar will focus on the following topics:

- Defining the commercial role of Ho Chi Minh City after the merger;

- Consumer data and retail trends in Ho Chi Minh City;

- Restructuring from traditional retail channels;

- Trade fairs and exhibitions in new urban spaces;

- A modern commodity and trading exchange.

With such relevant and strategic topics, the detailed content of the discussion session will offer practical proposals and solutions, suggesting ways to build a modern, integrated, and efficient commercial space for the Ho Chi Minh City megacity in its new development phase.

This will improve the quality of commercial space planning, develop smart retail infrastructure, perfect integrated supply chains, and promote regional linkage models.

The main issues discussed at the seminar included:

Orienting the distribution system planning towards a multi-center urban model; Modernizing and digitizing traditional markets; Reorganizing the warehousing and regional distribution center network; Developing e-commerce; Strengthening linkages with seaports and industrial zones; and perfecting retail development policies to meet new consumer demands.

Tuổi Trẻ Online will continue to update the content of the panel discussion.

Scenes from the seminar on the afternoon of July 11th.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City (far left), exchanges views with delegates - Photo: Q. DINH

The seminar, held in Vung Tau ward, attracted a large number of businesses who participated and offered their opinions.

Representatives from various departments, agencies, and businesses met at the seminar - Photo: Q. DINH

DONG HA - NGUYEN TRI - QUANG DINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ban-huong-phat-trien-thuong-mai-cho-sieu-do-thi-tp-hcm-2025071113515465.htm