Developing smart Ho Chi Minh City in the 4.0 era

In the 4.0 era, building a smart, modern Ho Chi Minh City worthy of being the economic locomotive of the country is a necessary and urgent task.

It is necessary to define a vision for Ho Chi Minh City to develop on par with major cities in the world by 2050, becoming one of the important financial centers of the Indian Ocean - Pacific region. (Source: VNA)

Vietnam is considered one of the countries that has successfully implemented the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating enormous changes for its people. The SDGs have been nationalized by Vietnam through the issuance of the National Action Plan (NAP) to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in May 2017, focusing on sustainable development of the urbanization process in provinces and cities across the country.

Piloting special mechanisms and policies

Ho Chi Minh City is a major center of economy, culture, education-training, science-technology, making the greatest contribution to the overall economic development of the country, being the economic locomotive in all fields and having great influence and impact on the whole country. Implementing Resolution No. 16-NQ/TW 2012 of the Politburo and the National Action Plan 2017, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 54/2017 on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for sustainable development of Ho Chi Minh City.

Based on the above orientations, the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee issued Resolution No. 08-NQ/TU on December 6, 2017 and the City has achieved certain results. Except for the years severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the City's economy has continuously grown strongly, with an average annual growth rate of 7.72% in the 2016-2019 period, higher than the 7.22% rate in the 2011-2015 period. The policy of spending additional income has been implemented publicly and transparently, contributing to improving the lives of cadres, civil servants, and public employees, inspiring the spirit of creative labor, consolidating and improving work efficiency and the quality of the state apparatus in all fields...

However, besides the achieved results, there are still some limitations such as mechanisms for adjusting collection policies, implementing equitization, arranging real estate of central agencies, disbursing capital for central projects in the area... Although some mechanisms have been implemented, the effectiveness is still low, policies to attract experts, scientists and people with special talents have not been widely applied; there is a lack of specific financial mechanisms to help the City mobilize more resources to solve urgent problems in infrastructure, solve social and environmental problems, improve the investment environment...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is blurring the lines between biology, physics and technology through the Internet of Things (IoT). Furthermore, 4IR impacts cities and the concept of “smart cities” is seen through the lens of 4IR with specific challenges: planning, buildings, connectivity, data, energy, governance and transportation.

For 4IR to be integrated in cities, three criteria need to be met. First, the concept of sustainability should go beyond the economic ecosystem.

Second, urban planning practice is very important. However, urban planning is a massive information product that requires accuracy and timely and regular updates to turn information into a resource that promotes positive actions of the whole society. Digital technology can easily build virtual networks combined with physical structures to contribute to the effective practice of urban planning information work in a transparent and public manner for the whole population.

Third, the success of smart cities depends on innovative businesses that meet the challenges of 4IR and are an integral part of the process. Smart cities first and foremost need effective, creative, and scientific governance design strategies.

Faced with new opportunities in the context of the country having both a good economic and geopolitical position in the region, in December 2022, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 31-NQ/TW on the direction and tasks of developing Ho Chi Minh City to 2030, with a vision to 2045, and the Government issued Decision 642/QD-TTg 2022 on the task of developing the Ho Chi Minh City Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. Currently, the Government is preparing a new Resolution on piloting outstanding mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City to submit to the National Assembly.

The new draft Resolution focuses on building mechanisms and policies in eight areas: investment management; budget finance; urban and environmental resource management; priority industries and occupations to attract strategic investors; science and technology management, innovation; organization of the City's apparatus; organization of Thu Duc City's apparatus; and application of the law.

Urgent solutions

To effectively implement the above orientations and contribute to the draft of the new Resolution, in the current context when Ho Chi Minh City's economic growth rate is very low (GRDP is estimated to increase by 0.7% over the same period); the real estate market, the financial market face many difficulties, bad bank debt and bond maturity pressure tend to increase; businesses are dissolved, continue to cut labor and have more difficulties in terms of orders and capital sources; consumer purchasing power decreases; input costs increase... short- and long-term solutions are needed.

Short term solution

The Government has strengthened fiscal and monetary policies to support immediate demand stimulus such as extending and reducing taxes and land rents. Banks and credit institutions have restructured debt repayment terms, maintained debt groups, exempted and reduced interest and fees, and especially reduced bank interest rates in the direction of developing a healthy competitive market economy and the win-win principle. In addition, measures are needed to stimulate market purchasing power as well as support unemployment for workers.

Medium and long term solutions

It is necessary to study the model of autonomous urban government (Autonomus status) with the active participation of the people to develop endless social capital for modern urban governance. Gradually build and implement the two-level urban model with the district level as the basic level for Ho Chi Minh City, in order to ensure the improvement of the efficiency of the City's organizational apparatus in the field of investment and budget finance as well as to minimize bureaucratic administrative management, time-consuming and lack of transparency in rights and responsibilities in urban governance. In parallel with the construction of the new model, it is necessary to prioritize the research and development of corresponding laws to ensure enforcement. This is also the main criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of legislators.

There needs to be a strong support policy for piloting two priority industrial sectors with breakthrough and spillover effects, namely finance and logistics, because Ho Chi Minh City is home to 54% of the total number of enterprises providing professional logistics services in the country and currently contributes 22.3% of GDP, accounts for nearly 27% of the national budget, and attracts nearly 34% of the country's FDI projects...

With this position and its important geopolitical position, Ho Chi Minh City deserves to be an international financial and logistics center. Associations and businesses need to orient innovation towards the development of smart cities in these two areas to be able to effectively apply new technologies and connect with global partners.

It is necessary to define a vision for 2050, Ho Chi Minh City will develop on par with major cities in the world, becoming one of the important financial and logistics service centers of the Indo-Pacific region. On that basis, build a master plan for Ho Chi Minh City for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, to serve as a foundation for socio-economic development plans to concretize the city's strategic vision.

When developing a plan, it is necessary to study and develop a policy mechanism to promote and integrate resources for socio-economic development. The model of five resources for socio-economic development (including resources, people, products, finance and society) can be an effective reference in this process.

Along with the maximum efforts of the City, the Government's strong breakthrough support policy in developing new urban models and prioritizing key sectors, especially determining strategic vision through comprehensive planning will be the driving force and compass towards a smart Ho Chi Minh City in the first half of the 21st century, so that the City is not only the economic locomotive of the country but also contributes to the implementation of the United Nations' millennium goals in the 4IR era.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/phat-trien-tp-ho-chi-minh-thong-minh-trong-thoi-dai-40-229330.html