Delegates focused on key issues concerning socio-economic development targets, as well as Party, government, and political system building. Many participants offered insights on investing in HCMC’s development as a national hub for education and training, improving human resource quality, promoting public health, and ensuring social welfare.
More investment in schools
Head of the Culture and Society Affairs Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council, Cao Thanh Binh emphasized that meeting the target of 300 classrooms per 10,000 school-age residents poses significant pressure. He noted that while HCMC is nearing this ratio, Binh Duong still faces challenges, and Ba Ria–Vung Tau has already met or exceeded it.
He recommended that the action program for implementing the Resolution should prioritize this goal, including a comprehensive review and reassessment of land-use planning for educational development. Population growth in some districts has intensified the demand for schools, but the shortage of available land remains a major obstacle.
Also concerned about the lack of land for educational investment, Chairman Cao Hoang Khuong of Hoa Binh Ward People’s Committee suggested that there needs to be a mechanism to free up vacant and long-abandoned land plots. He recommended planning and executing the planning of these land areas for investment in public works, schools, and social housing.
Concerning the ongoing issue in the education sector, which continues to experience a shortage of teachers for subjects such as life skills, drawing, and fine arts, Mr. Cao Thanh Binh has suggested the necessity for strategies to draw in human resources, especially by drawing potential talent from the stage when they are still high school students.
He also mentioned that at the beginning of the school year, parents have complained about having to pay various fees. Therefore, the city should consider and implement a policy to support the expenses of poor, near-poor, orphaned, and disabled students.
Pham Khanh Phong Lan, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Authority, suggested that both the education and health sectors are currently facing challenges related to self-governance. Furthermore, the delegate proposed that, in addition to focusing investment on high-performance sports, the city should also encourage residents to engage in physical exercise and strengthen their health, and pay greater attention to preventive healthcare, particularly by investing in preventive healthcare at the grassroots level.
Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, Tran Luu Quang offered a suggestion that since the city lacks life skills teachers and recruitment is difficult, the city could develop a policy to attract individuals with aptitude in life skills subjects to teach students in schools through a contractual arrangement.
To resolve the problem of vocational training graduates being unable to find employment, he proposed that vocational training should be conducted according to the needs of businesses and society. This must involve a linkage between vocational schools and enterprises.
The Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee emphasized that HCMC must have preferential policies for disadvantaged people to ensure they have more complete access to education and healthcare.
He stated that, with the open mechanisms and decentralized policies granted to the city, HCMC is in a position to apply a pilot mechanism for autonomy in the health sector. However, he noted that autonomy must genuinely lead to autonomy, and HCMC can pilot this at a few medical facilities based on the following principles:
- People receive the best possible healthcare services within their means.
- The healthcare facility must maintain and develop, or at least be able to sustain itself while operating autonomously.
HCMC focuses on solving flooding and traffic congestion
According to Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, Tran Quang Lam the issues directed by General Secretary To Lam at the congress, which are also of great concern to the city's leadership, involve finding effective solutions for traffic infrastructure, congestion, flood control, the environment, and especially green transportation. Therefore, he said, to realize these goals, the city needs specific and clear, feasible implementation plans, along with systematic and synchronous sources of capital and organizational execution. Concurrently, the city will flexibly apply legal regulations to attract investment in the form of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), efficiently exploit its land fund, and implement specific policies to attract high-quality human resources.
Secretary of the Bay Hien Ward Party Committee, Nguyen Ba Thanh stated that in the past, the city had several drainage facilities that are now gradually disappearing due to the urbanization process. Therefore, the city needs to focus on dredging canals and ditches to improve drainage, while also renovating existing drainage culverts.
Concerning the issue of transportation, he pointed out that although the city has expressways and metro lines, it needs to concentrate on synchronous investment. Currently, there is a situation where major roads are completed, but the surrounding infrastructure and connecting traffic routes are not yet synchronized. Consequently, upon the completion of the main arterial routes, attention must be paid to connecting the surrounding traffic routes.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Nguyen Van Duoc:
In the coming period, HCMC requires an investment of over VND3 quadrillion (US$113.85 billion). Of this amount, the city can balance more than VND1 quadrillion, with the remainder needing to be mobilized from various resources. Accordingly, the city will mobilize all resources for development through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), investment funds, along with the state budget. Additionally, the International Financial Center in HCMC is a very significant channel for capital mobilization, and many investors have expressed a desire to cooperate.
Regarding human resource training, not only the State but also private enterprises, including international ones, are participating in training. The city has signed cooperation agreements for human resource training with many major global corporations. HCMC has an advantage in terms of human resources; if the high-quality training program is executed well, turning the dream into reality and implementing the resolution will be within reach.
