HO CHI MINH CITY: Vietnam’s largest and most populous city has set an ambitious target of achieving economic growth of over 10% in 2026.
And Ho Chi Minh City’s goal has been described by city leaders as both critical and challenging, given the city’s vast economic scale.
To realise this target, the southern economic hub is mobilising the entire political system, the business community and society at large to achieve the taget, while placing strong emphasis on unlocking private investment and accelerating public spending.
Speaking at a review of the city’s socio-economic performance, chairman of the city People’s Committee, Nguyen Van Duoc, said the pursuit of double-digit growth would be the city’s foremost economic task in 2026.
With an economic scale of around three quadrillion dong (US$125bil), he noted that achieving growth of more than 10% would require the creation of roughly 300 trillion dong (US$12.5bil) in additional value – a daunting challenge for a city of such size.
Duoc pointed out that state budget investment capital for this year was estimated at about 150 trillion dong (US$6.25bil), covering just half of the additional value needed.
As a result, the city must strongly mobilise social resources and encourage greater investment from enterprises and the private sector, said Duoc.
To this end, the municipal administration has drawn up specific action plans and clearly assigned responsibilities to each vice-chairman, as well as to departments, agencies and district authorities, to ensure coordinated implementation of growth measures.
Providing an update on recent economic performance, Hoang V Thanh, acting director of the city Department of Finance, said the city had shown strong political determination from the very beginning of the year, adhering closely to resolutions of the central government and the municipal Party Committee, and remaining steadfast in its goal of exceeding 10% gross regional domestic product growth in 2026. — Viet Nam News/ANN
