Ho Chi Minh City's economic achievements: Practice is the strongest answer

The closer we get to the 1st Congress of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee for the 2025-2030 term, the more distorted and denied arguments about the city's development achievements appear on social media. However, actual figures and outstanding efforts in the context of the city having to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and global difficulties have proven that Ho Chi Minh City still maintains its leading role as the economic driving force of the whole country.

Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly developing and modernizing. Photo: Hoang Hung

The trend of labor migration is inevitable.

In recent days, some social media accounts have spread information that “many workers are leaving the city because the business environment is no longer attractive”, or “enterprises are fleeing Ho Chi Minh City”. This argument deliberately distorts and denies the city’s development achievements.

Ms. Nguyen Vo Minh Thu, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Export Processing and Industrial Zones (EPZs) of Ho Chi Minh City, said that this situation has not been recorded in the workforce in EPZs. On the contrary, statistics show a significant increase. In the first 6 months of 2025, 59 EPZs managed by the Management Board of EPZs of Ho Chi Minh City (including Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau after the merger) had about 905,000 workers working in more than 5,500 projects, an increase of nearly 17,000 people compared to the end of 2024. Foreign workers accounted for 65%, which confirms that Ho Chi Minh City continues to be an attractive destination.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs Pham Thanh Nhan shared that the movement of labor to the provinces is also an inevitable trend, reflecting the more even development of the country's economy . Because currently, many localities have developed industrial parks, creating jobs on the spot, so instead of choosing a job far from home, workers tend to move back to their hometowns for convenience in work and closeness to family.

Faced with this shift, Ho Chi Minh City has determined that this is not only a challenge but also a driving force for Ho Chi Minh City enterprises to invest in science and technology , improve productivity, and be in line with the orientation of economic model transformation. Minimize labor-intensive industries. Therefore, when workers have more opportunities to be close to their families, reduce housing costs, and more importantly, it is also a redistribution of the labor force to serve the balanced development of the whole country, so this shift cannot be used to deny the leading role of Ho Chi Minh City. According to statistics, the actual labor force working in Ho Chi Minh City is nearly 7.3 million people (equivalent to 14% of the total labor force nationwide).

In addition, it is necessary to review the overall socio-economic situation of Ho Chi Minh City in the past time to have a comprehensive assessment. Right from the beginning of the 2020-2025 term, Ho Chi Minh City faced an extremely difficult period, especially the Covid-19 pandemic which left serious consequences. However, under the direction of the Central Government, the consensus of the people and the business community, the city has gradually recovered and strongly revived, creating many remarkable results, continuing to affirm its leading role.

Outstanding figures of Ho Chi Minh City in the 2020-2025 term

- GRDP in 2025: Estimated at 3.03 million billion VND, 1.5 times higher than in 2020, accounting for 23.5% of the country's GDP.

- GRDP per capita is 1.7 times higher than the whole country.

- State budget revenue: reached 737,000 billion VND, accounting for 36.7% of total national budget revenue.

- Import-export turnover: Reached 181.5 billion USD, accounting for 23.1% of the country's total turnover.

Businesses trust and continue to stick around

Regarding the information that "enterprises are fleeing the city" spread by some opportunists, former Director of Research and Development (Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Economics and Management) Nguyen Hoang Dung said that it must be re-examined. In reality, large corporations are shifting labor-intensive and land-intensive production to neighboring provinces and lower-cost areas to optimize costs. However, they still keep their headquarters, research and development, finance and high-value services in Ho Chi Minh City. The city is still the "brain" of management, innovation and connection, affirming its role as the production service center of the Southern key economic region.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc chaired a working session with Lotte Properties HCMC Company Limited to resolve the Eco Smart City project. Photo: HOANG HUNG

Meanwhile, the city has made efforts to remove difficulties, reform administration, and clear policies. A specific example is that after rumors of withdrawal, Lotte Properties HCMC Co., Ltd. decided to continue implementing the Eco Smart City project in HCMC. In addition to large companies choosing HCMC for investment, there are also tens of thousands of new businesses established each year. That shows that confidence in the investment environment in HCMC is still very strong. In particular, in recent times, HCMC has implemented many solutions to remove difficulties and improve the investment environment for businesses. In particular, HCMC has established a special working group to remove difficulties for investment projects.

According to the Department of Finance, as of September 24 (including the period before the reorganization), 47 long-standing projects with long-standing problems have been resolved; the total registered investment capital is over VND 420,302 billion and the scale is over 25,858 hectares of land. In addition, 30 private investment projects (under the authority of the provincial People's Committee) in Ba Ria - Vung Tau (formerly) have also been handled.

In addition to economic recovery and improving the investment environment, the city has proactively proposed and implemented many breakthrough policies such as Resolution 98/2023/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City; the project to build an International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City; implementing a system of belt roads; planning the urban railway system; developing the Cai Mep Ha and Cai Mep Ha downstream seaport systems; Can Gio international transit port...

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Dung commented that with a modern transportation network formed in the future and an increasingly open mechanism, it will be a very favorable environment for businesses to invest in Ho Chi Minh City. This is not only the foundation for sustainable growth but also the strategic thinking that Ho Chi Minh City has been striving to realize its long-term vision of becoming an international megacity.

THU HUONG - CAM NUONG - BAO HAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/thanh-tuu-kinh-te-tphcm-thuc-tien-la-loi-dap-manh-me-nhat-post817429.html