Ho Chi Minh City affirms its leading position in attracting FDI

Intel employees package chips at the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park. Photo : Le Toan

Attracting foreign capital

In late March 2025, a series of corporations and foreign investment funds gathered in Ho Chi Minh City to attend the Conference on Investment Funds and Foreign Investment in the New Era of Vietnam's Development, organized by the Ministry of Finance. The number of businesses attending was so large that the hall of one of the largest hotels in Ho Chi Minh City was not enough to accommodate them.

At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City leaders also had shuttle meetings with foreign business delegations coming to the city to learn about the investment environment. Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee show that in the first 3 months of 2025, the city leaders welcomed and worked with 15 foreign business delegations (not including meetings with specific businesses) coming to learn about investment.

Speaking to Dau Tu Newspaper, Mr. Jeong Jihoon, Vice President of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, said that Korean enterprises consider Ho Chi Minh City an attractive investment destination thanks to its strong improvements in infrastructure, good investment attraction policies and favorable location. “Many Korean enterprises consider Ho Chi Minh City as one of the top priorities when considering expanding investment abroad,” Mr. Jeong Jihoon shared.

Ho Chi Minh City officially opened its doors to FDI inflows in 1988, right after the Foreign Investment Law was promulgated in 1987. However, FDI attraction has really exploded since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007.

Data from the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office shows that FDI capital into the city is increasing day by day. If in the period 2005 - 2009, Ho Chi Minh City attracted 14 billion USD, then in the period 2010 - 2015 it increased to 15.6 billion USD. Notably, the "golden" period of Ho Chi Minh City in attracting FDI was the period 2016 - 2020, with 29.9 billion USD. This figure then decreased to 15.8 billion USD in the period 2021 - 2024 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Intel chose Ho Chi Minh City because it is located in the heart of Southeast Asia, the fastest growing region in the world. Moreover, Vietnam has a stable political and social environment, a well-invested transportation and telecommunications system, a young and talented workforce, and is close to the center of Asia…

- Mr. Kenneth Tse, General Director of Intel Vietnam

In the first 3 months of 2025, FDI attraction in Ho Chi Minh City continued to flourish with a total registered capital of 567.2 million USD, an increase of 23.4% over the same period in 2024. Accumulated to March 2025, the City continued to hold the leading position in the country in attracting FDI, with more than 13,900 valid projects, total investment capital of more than 59.5 billion USD.

The most prominent mark in attracting foreign investment in Ho Chi Minh City was the establishment of Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in 1991. The pioneering implementation of the “one-stop” model in this export processing zone created the premise for the City to establish a series of export processing zones and industrial parks (IPs) such as Linh Trung, Tan Tao, Hiep Phuoc, etc., opening a new era of development for the City. Since then, Ho Chi Minh City has quickly become an attractive destination for foreign investors.

Key to success

To date, Ho Chi Minh City is still considered an attractive destination by investors. Many famous corporations such as Intel, Samsung, Lotte, Aeon, Keppel Land... have chosen Ho Chi Minh City as a strategic investment base.

Recalling the time 20 years ago when Intel decided to invest in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Kenneth Tse, General Director of Intel Vietnam, shared that Intel chose Ho Chi Minh City because this city is located in the center of Southeast Asia, the fastest growing region in the world. Moreover, Vietnam has a stable political and social environment, well-invested transportation and telecommunications systems, a young and talented workforce, and is close to the center of Asia...

“When Intel first entered the Vietnamese market, it was provided with a very convenient and quick one-stop mechanism,” Mr. Kenneth Tse recalled.

Attracting large corporations like Intel shows that Ho Chi Minh City has the necessary infrastructure and policies to support advanced manufacturing activities.

Ho Chi Minh City's success in attracting foreign investment comes not only from its favorable geographical location or large market size, but also thanks to the determination to improve the investment environment and the city government's support for businesses.

To continue to create confidence for investors, Ho Chi Minh City is determined to further improve the investment environment, through reviewing and simplifying administrative procedures, making investment licensing processes transparent, and organizing regular dialogues between the government and the business community.

Recently, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, requested the City's departments and branches to continue to cut at least 30% of unnecessary administrative procedures with business conditions under the authority of the City People's Committee to improve the business environment and support enterprises. It is the determination and goodwill of the City that has created trust among investors.

Affirming the leading position

In dialogues with foreign enterprises held earlier this year, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan affirmed that FDI capital plays a very important role in the city's socio-economic development.

Although leading the country in attracting FDI, Ho Chi Minh City is not resting on its laurels but is determined to improve the investment environment to continue attracting many large corporations. However, attracting investment in this phase will be very different from the previous phase, because the City will select projects that use new technology, have high added value, and are capable of connecting to the global production and supply chain, instead of granting investment licenses en masse as before.

In the third wave of investment, Ho Chi Minh City is facing the opportunity to welcome "giants" to invest, such as Nvidia, Eaton, Warburg Pincus (USA), Hyosung (Korea)...

To welcome high-quality FDI capital, Ho Chi Minh City has made careful preparations by expanding an additional 195 hectares in the High-Tech Park to attract investment in the microchip and semiconductor industries. The city is also preparing to invest in Pham Van Hai I and II Industrial Parks in Binh Chanh District according to green industrial park standards to attract high-tech industries. Existing export processing zones and industrial parks will also be oriented to be converted into green industrial parks to attract high-tech industries.

Ho Chi Minh City has a large workforce of IT engineers, creating a solid foundation for the development of high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the semiconductor industry. Universities in Ho Chi Minh City are cooperating with large corporations to train human resources for the semiconductor and microchip industries.

To quickly realize the goal of attracting high-tech industries, in 2024, Ho Chi Minh City signed a cooperation agreement with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR). This center will be the driving force to promote the development of the City's information technology industry in the coming time.

Ho Chi Minh City is also accelerating investment in a series of belt roads (Ring Road 2, Ring Road 3, Ring Road 4). In 2025, the City plans to invest in 10 strategic infrastructure projects with a total capital of about 100,000 billion VND, such as the Belt Road 4 project through Ho Chi Minh City (15,120 billion VND); Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway Project (19,650 billion VND) and 5 gateway BOT projects with an investment capital of 44,592 billion VND... Regarding urban railways, Ho Chi Minh City is focusing all its efforts on investing in 7 metro lines to complete in the next 10 years; investing in railway lines connecting Tan Son Nhat airport and Long Thanh airport.

Looking back at the process of attracting foreign investment in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association, assessed that the City has welcomed two investment waves, with many breakthrough investment attraction solutions that have brought great efficiency.

With the first wave of investment, the city successfully attracted many multi-sector enterprises and formed many export processing zones and industrial parks. With the second wave, Ho Chi Minh City attracted more selective investment, towards improving investment quality, focusing on attracting high-tech enterprises and has become the destination of multinational corporations such as Samsung, Intel, Nidec Sankyo...

Now, Ho Chi Minh City is welcoming the third wave of investment. Initially, the city has attracted high-tech projects to create a foundation for breakthrough development in the new era, continuing to affirm its role as the country's "leading bird" in high-tech investment.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tphcm-khang-dinh-vi-the-dan-dau-trong-thu-hut-fdi-d275253.html