From the Autumn Economic Forum to the commitment to creating a “Green

Government request for a green “laboratory” – number

The Autumn Economic Forum 2025 with the theme “Green transformation in the digital age”, gathered more than 1,500 delegates, nearly 100 international delegations, hundreds of technology, smart manufacturing, logistics, finance enterprises... This is the first time Vietnam and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have organized a regional forum right in Ho Chi Minh City - a city expected to become a new growth pole, an international megacity.

*Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered a closing speech at the 2025 Autumn Economic Forum. Photo: Hoang Chien*

In his orientation speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh set out three consistent viewpoints for the journey of “green transformation in the digital age”. First, all development policies must take people, the people, and businesses as the center, subject, goal, driving force, and resources; not trading progress, social justice, and environmental protection for pure growth. Second, Vietnam is consistently a good friend, a reliable partner, and a responsible member of the international community, linking green and digital transformation with an independent, autonomous foreign policy for peace and development. Third, resources start from thinking and vision, driving force comes from innovation, strength originates from people and businesses, and must know how to combine domestic strength with international strength.

On that basis, Vietnam reaffirms its commitment to Net Zero by 2050, is ready to open the market, and create a legal corridor to welcome green capital, green technology, and digital technology from international partners - a particularly important message for a city that is aiming to become an international financial center like Ho Chi Minh City.

The Prime Minister reiterated five “cognitive convergence points” between Vietnam and its partners: the changing world requires cooperation, dialogue and multilateralism; green transformation and digital transformation are irreversible trends; three key levers are institutions, resources, and innovation; people are at the center of all policies; and the international community is ready to accompany Vietnam in the new development stage. Putting Ho Chi Minh City at the center of the Forum, these messages are like a “reference frame” to assess whether the city can truly become a model of dual transformation.

Notably, the Prime Minister shifted from “big principles” to “very specific assignments”. For the Government and ministries and branches, the requirement is to quickly review and perfect the legal system - especially land, investment, energy, environment - while promoting administrative procedure reform, reducing business conditions, and creating favorable conditions for businesses to invest in green technology and digital technology.

For Ho Chi Minh City, the message is not only encouragement, but also a request: Quickly issue a detailed Action Plan to implement the Forum's commitments; promote the spirit of "self-reliance, self-strengthening, daring to think, daring to do"; be ready to pioneer in becoming a "laboratory" (sandbox) for green economic models, green finance, smart cities, especially an international financial center preparing for operation.

3 Action Focuses and Promises for a Green City – Digital

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Tran Luu Quang called on representatives of the Government, the business community and the academic world to consider the Autumn Economic Forum 2025 as a commitment to action with clear goals, specific time, transparent responsibilities and quantified results. He affirmed that Ho Chi Minh City is ready to be a pioneering center, a place to discuss and pilot strategies, a place to start new ideas, and a place to spread successful models to the whole country and the region.

*Mr. Tran Luu Quang, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, spoke at the Autumn Economic Forum 2025. Photo: Thanh Minh*

After the urban space merger, the city aims to become an international megacity, leading in green transformation, smart urban development, attracting high-tech investment and forming an international financial center. To do that, Ho Chi Minh City has identified three fundamental breakthroughs: institutions, infrastructure and human resources - three indispensable "legs" if it wants to stand firm on the dual transformation journey full of risks and opportunities.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc called the forum a source of inspiration and positive pressure for the city to "act more decisively, dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate and dare to take responsibility". More importantly, the head of the city government announced three strategic action focuses: creating an innovative ecosystem centered on people and businesses; promoting dual transformation, green transformation and digital transformation, across all urban and socio-economic development activities; and expanding international cooperation, attracting global human resources to Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam.

The fact that the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee emphasized that the city is "ready to be a pilot site for policy mechanisms and even unprecedented ones" shows a clear resonance with the "green - digital laboratory" requirement set by the Prime Minister.

If viewed through an economic-policy lens, this is a parallel structure: the Central Government expands the institutional framework, empowers experimentation; Ho Chi Minh City takes the responsibility of going first, accepting risks in exchange for earlier growth benefits.

In that dense stream of commitments, the important highlight is the promise of a government that is “accompanying, active, transparent and effective”, of an investment environment that is “open, safe, friendly” and of “transforming the Government’s policies into quick, decisive, creative and effective actions”. Here, the measure is no longer the number of conferences, but the time it takes to process a procedure, the compliance costs of businesses, the number of green projects – the number actually implemented in the area.

A positive sign is that this forum does not stand alone but is linked with specific commitments: Joint Statement between Ho Chi Minh City and WEF on initiatives to promote smart manufacturing and responsible industrial transformation; policy dialogue sessions on energy security, logistics, smart seaports, digital government; CEO 500 - TEA CONNECT sessions where large corporations directly give feedback to the city. If Ho Chi Minh City knows how to take advantage of this, this is the "soft capital" - knowledge capital, network, ideas - to turn the sandbox into replicable models.

The Autumn Economic Forum 2025 is also a reminder that “Green – Digital City” is not only built with concrete, but also with brains and aspirations. Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son called on young people in Ho Chi Minh City to start businesses in the green – digital field; many side forums talked about vocational training, doctoral training associated with the needs of Industry 4.0, about “cultural space in the digital age” as a new economic pillar.

A Ho Chi Minh City that wants to become a destination for knowledge and innovation cannot rely solely on tax or land incentives; what retains talent is quality of life and a creative environment.

The 2025 Autumn Economic Forum has therefore become a "reform mandate" for Ho Chi Minh City. The three breakthroughs and three action focuses announced by the city's leaders must be translated into substantive changes in every procedure, every project, and every neighborhood.

If in a few years, people can point to smoothly operating green transport routes, smart industrial parks that reduce emissions, residential areas that benefit from seamless digital public services, and green and digital startups that grow from the Ho Chi Minh City ecosystem, then the concept of “Green and Digital City” will no longer be on the backdrops but will be present in daily life, in the people’s beliefs and in the way the international community looks at the city named after Uncle Ho. And that is the worthy measure for a city that is assigned the role of “pioneer in green and digital transformation” in Vietnam.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/tu-dien-dan-kinh-te-mua-thu-den-cam-ket-kien-tao-thanh-pho-xanh-so-432274.html