Ho Chi Minh City pioneers institutional breakthroughs

As the economic locomotive of the country, Ho Chi Minh City has been identified by the Central Government as a key growth pole in the context of Vietnam's economy targeting double-digit growth from 2026. Faced with the urgent need for institutional breakthroughs, the city has proactively taken the lead, ready to take on the mission of piloting new mechanisms.

Ho Chi Minh City is the most economically dynamic locality in the country (in photo: Tan Cang - Cat Lai). Photo: Nguyen Le

Promoting creative tradition

In 1979 and 1980, the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee (term I) issued two important resolutions, proposing breakthrough directions in the spirit of proactiveness and creativity from the grassroots, helping the production sector to "explode" in the context of a shortage of goods and difficult people's lives.

At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City proposed a policy of “finding all raw materials for production”. Accordingly, direct import-export companies such as Direximco and Cholimex were established to earn foreign currency to import raw materials and supplies for production.

Referring to this period, Associate Professor Dr. Phan Xuan Bien, former Head of the Propaganda Department of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, said that at that time, the tug of war between innovation and conservatism and stagnation was quite fierce and intense. The city's innovations were initially considered "fence-breaking", but were later recognized as the "first breakthrough" of the innovation process, as "dynamism, creativity", daring to think, daring to do, daring to take responsibility, becoming the "brand" of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Saigon River flows through the city, a waterway with bustling cargo transportation activities. Photo: Nguyen Le

Former Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission, former Standing Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Pham Chanh Truc said that the Central Committee has summarized the experience of Ho Chi Minh City "breaking through the fence" and "breaking out", contributing to changing the socio-economic development path and building new mechanisms.

During the peak period of the Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control, Ho Chi Minh City proposed not to continue centralized isolation, but instead to deploy large-scale vaccination to create community immunity - a policy supported by the Government. After that, the city's functional agencies "knocked on the door" of each house to vaccinate, gradually bringing the city back to a "new normal" state. The phrase "new normal" comes from the practice of epidemic prevention and control in Ho Chi Minh City, contributing decisively to helping Vietnam become one of the successful examples of epidemic prevention in the world .

Ho Chi Minh City has a tradition of dynamism and creativity and is constantly growing strongly. Photo: Minh Hoang

Pioneering breakthrough

General Secretary To Lam has just written an article “Breakthrough in institutions and laws for the country to rise up”. According to experts, Ho Chi Minh City has experience in “breaking barriers” in the period before and after the renovation. Now, in the new era, the Party Committee, government and people of the city must be more proactive and creative to adapt flexibly to the new context and develop appropriately in the next period. The city’s successful models and new ways of doing things can be replicated nationwide.

Former Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, former Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Pham Phuong Thao said that Ho Chi Minh City still has many bottlenecks, and the bottleneck of bottlenecks is the institution. According to Ms. Pham Phuong Thao, the more difficulties and challenges Ho Chi Minh City faces, the more it shows its mettle and ability to rise strongly, which has been proven in practice over the past 50 years. Therefore, we believe that the leadership of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and government will continue to be affirmed in the new development stage, with higher demands.

Thu Thiem new urban area will become the new center of the city in the future. Photo: Nguyen Le

Dr. Tran Quang Thang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Economics and Management, said that Ho Chi Minh City has been a pioneer in innovation, and to continue to maintain its leading role, the city needs to take more steady steps in the new era. In the upcoming institutional reform, the Central Government needs to "give" a mechanism for the city to strongly decentralize and delegate power to increase proactiveness in management and development. This helps local governments to be more flexible in implementing projects and administrative reforms.

In addition, the city must comprehensively transform the digital government model, focusing on completely eliminating paper documents, transferring all administrative processes to digital platforms by 2025, helping to improve management efficiency and transparency of activities; create a transparent business environment, cut cumbersome administrative procedures, optimize licensing processes, and build more flexible policies to attract effective investment.

At the same time, comprehensively transforming the digital economic model, focusing on applying technology, artificial intelligence (AI) to governance and financial technology, with the project to build an international financial center in Thu Thiem will help the city attract global investment capital; promote the green economic model, focusing on investing in renewable energy, adapting to global trends. This will not only help the city develop sustainably but also improve the quality of life of its people.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the city is mobilizing internal resources, further promoting the spirit and tradition of dynamism and creativity among the people and workers, especially the high-quality human resources which are the city's strengths, to be ready to pioneer in new fields. From there, spreading open thinking and creating new values. Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc said that the city will apply a "soft strategy" to make a breakthrough in the next stage of development.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-tien-phong-dot-pha-the-che-701475.html