Ho Chi Minh City plans to invest 7 billion USD to develop an international financial center.

Ho Chi Minh City International Financial Center covers nearly 800 hectares

On July 15, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee coordinated with the Astana International Financial Center to organize a roundtable program for businesses from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Astana, Kazakhstan with the theme "Cooperation to develop the Vietnam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City".

Talking about the advantages of Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said that the city accounts for about 23% of the country's GDP and is the center of many key economic sectors such as finance, technology and services. Ho Chi Minh City is also home to many banks, securities companies, and financial institutions, creating a solid foundation for the development of an international financial center.

The speed of digital transformation in the field of financial technology is among the highest in the region and the world , along with transaction costs in the financial system being much lower than in the world's financial centers. High-quality human resources are also a strength of Ho Chi Minh City.

Overview of the Business Roundtable program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Astana, Kazakhstan.

According to Mr. Dinh Khac Huy, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, the international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City has a specific goal of attracting international investment capital, especially long-term capital flows, from multinational financial corporations. At the same time, it builds a comprehensive financial ecosystem including international banks, stock markets, fintech (financial technology), and international asset management.

Regarding the boundaries of the international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Huy said that the total area of the international financial center is 793 hectares, including Ben Thanh ward (20 hectares), Saigon ward (146 hectares), Thu Thiem ward (563 hectares) and the Saigon river (64 hectares). The core area of 9.2 hectares located in Thu Thiem will be the place to build the headquarters of the management, supervision and arbitration agency of the international financial center.

Currently, Saigon Ward and Ben Thanh Ward are the existing financial center areas, with bustling foreign exchange, fintech, digital transactions, finance, and logistics activities. The expanded area will include buildings currently housing insurance, finance, and banking companies such as Saigon Trade Center, Prudentail Headquarter, Mplaza, Techcombank Building, Saigon Tower, etc.

2,000 billion VND needed to build headquarters of financial center agencies

Although Ho Chi Minh City has many advantages to develop into an international financial center from its leading economic scale in the country, its strategic geographical location to its role as a trade hub, according to the assessment of a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, its financial infrastructure, technology and current financial services ecosystem have not yet met international standards.

Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City has set out development goals and orientations for an international financial center. The city clearly defines the orientation for synchronous development of both hard and soft infrastructure.

Location of the international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance.

Regarding hard infrastructure, the Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance said that the city will develop underground transportation such as metro, underground roads... Priority will be given to completing metro lines 1, 2 and in the long term, metro line 3A passing through District 1.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City is also renovating road infrastructure and key intersections, expanding or intelligently regulating routes. Along with that, it is upgrading Bach Dang wharf into a modern waterway transit point.

According to Mr. Huy, Ho Chi Minh City will upgrade not only the power, water and drainage networks but also telecommunications and digital technology infrastructure. Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City will install a 5G network, broadcasting stations covering the entire financial center; integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) in electricity, water and traffic management.

The leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance said that the preliminary investment estimate for the entire financial center is about 172,000 billion VND (equivalent to 7 billion USD).

In the immediate future, it is necessary to prepare about 16,000 billion VND to complete the core area infrastructure including 11 lots in Thu Thiem in the first phase (about 2-3 years), in which the investment cost for building the headquarters of the financial center agencies needs about 2,000 billion VND.

In addition, to develop financial human resources that meet international standards, Ho Chi Minh City will attract and train high-quality human resources through joint programs with universities. Ho Chi Minh City also cooperates internationally to bring foreign experts to work according to the strategy in the Human Resources Development Project for the International Financial Center that the Institute for Development Studies is implementing.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tphcm-du-kien-dau-tu-7-ty-usd-phat-trien-trung-tam-tai-chinh-quoc-te-d332008.html