Ho Chi Minh City Sports needs to speed up economic development

Initially building and developing many types of activities since the 50s of the last century, until now, Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City sports is proud to be the cradle of the whole country with many famous athletes and countless brilliant achievements.

Glorious past

Not only proud of the golden pages of history in the past, Ho Chi Minh City sports also set many ambitious goals towards the future, together with the whole country's sports, reaching out to become a symbol of development and international integration.

After the country was reunified in 1975, Ho Chi Minh City, with its martial arts tradition and love of physical training, quickly became the leading sports center in the country. The city gathered outstanding talents and was also a "fertile land", a pioneer in organizing national and international sporting events.

The gold medals of Taekwondo of Tran Quang Ha (ASIAD Hiroshima 1994), Ho Nhat Thong (ASIAD Bangkok 1998) or the runner-up position of Sydney Olympics 2000 of female martial artist Tran Hieu Ngan... are considered milestones of sports in Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country in the international arena. The pioneering role of sports in Ho Chi Minh City over the past half century is also reflected in its breadth - the foundation of development.

Statistics show that Ho Chi Minh City is the first place to develop socialized sports models, with the formation of the first local sports federations in the country. Sports events such as the Golden Racket International Table Tennis Tournament, the Vietnam Golden Ball Awards, the Ho Chi Minh City Television Cycling Cup, etc. were born, taking on the stature of national activities and have been maintained persistently for decades.

The tradition of "providing half of the team's strength" and "contributing to 1/3 of the achievements" in many international tournaments and events for a long time is the pride of Ho Chi Minh City sports. During the period when Vietnamese sports first integrated into the international community in the 1980s and 1990s, the main development direction of Ho Chi Minh City sports focused on basic sports with the ability to compete for medals such as athletics, swimming, martial arts, table tennis, etc.

However, Ho Chi Minh City sports have been facing many challenges for many years. Increasingly fierce competition from other localities, along with the professionalization of sports, requires the city to innovate strongly to maintain its leading position. Experts point out that in the past 10 years, Ho Chi Minh City sports have clearly declined in the high-performance sector with many strong sports losing their pioneering role.

Ho Chi Minh City successfully organized the 2024 Teqball World Championship, bringing many economic values. (Photo: HOANG TRIEU)

Opportunities and challenges

The contribution of Ho Chi Minh City sports to the country has decreased in terms of the proportion of athletes when the human resources are clearly differentiated, the training regime and the policy of caring for and nurturing talents are not enough to stimulate development opportunities. Sports infrastructure has not met the needs of a megacity; equipment for professional sports is still limited, while investment in sports science , training technology or sports medicine has not been given due attention.

To maintain its position and develop sustainably, Ho Chi Minh City is implementing many new strategies for sports, from calling for investment in sports infrastructure, building international standard training centers to promoting the application of science and technology in training and coaching...

At the workshop "HCM City Sports creates sports economy - pioneers technology - reaches international level" held recently, economic experts as well as sports managers affirmed that the sports industry has an attraction that is not inferior to the cultural industry. The issue is the need to invest both financially and intellectually, giving opportunities for businesses to invest in sports, thereby promoting economic growth.

Ho Chi Minh City is currently a notable destination for many international sports tournaments such as marathon, golf, futsal, football, teqball, pickleball... These top events not only attract athletes and spectators from many countries and territories but also create great opportunities for the sports goods and services industry, helping to attract sponsorship contracts, sports products and services, contributing to the formation of a "sports economy" mindset in the community and businesses.

In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City successfully organized the 2024 World Teqball Championship, an event that brought many impressive statistics about the sports economy: Reaching 470 million potential customers globally - an increase of 400% compared to the previous tournament; broadcast in 74 countries, a record for teqball, bringing in a total media value of 2.1 million USD - an increase of more than 200% compared to the previous event in Bangkok (Thailand).

Teqball is one of the creative sports and recreational sports models with great potential for development in Ho Chi Minh City, besides adventure sports such as roller, mountain climbing, paragliding, sea sports... which are popular among young people. Ho Chi Minh City can take advantage of this opportunity to create a new, potential and diverse sports market.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/the-thao-tp-hcm-can-tang-toc-lam-kinh-te-196250504220403859.htm