On the morning of July 8, the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee convened its fourth expanded Executive Committee meeting, combined with a conference reviewing the city's socio-economic performance in the first half of 2026 and outlining key tasks and solutions for the remainder of the year.
At the conference, delegates reviewed the achievements, shortcomings and challenges in the city's socio-economic development during the first six months of the year, while proposing key measures to achieve double-digit economic growth and generate more than VND1 quadrillion (US$38 billion) in state budget revenue in 2026.
According to Hoang Vu Thanh, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, achieving a 100 percent public investment disbursement rate is a key political task that will help drive double-digit economic growth. The city will continue shifting from a "management mindset" to a "governance mindset," evaluating officials, civil servants and agency heads based on work performance and measurable outcomes. It will also strengthen on-site inspections, remove bottlenecks in compensation and land clearance, and accelerate digital transformation in project management and investment disbursement.
Departments and agencies will be required to clearly define responsibilities and implementation schedules for each project, reallocate funding from delayed projects, and prioritize major projects with strong spillover effects to avoid fragmented investment.
Regarding the goal of collecting more than VND1 quadrillion in state budget revenue. The Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance said that the department is working with relevant agencies to accelerate key revenue-generating measures. These include completing procedures for the auction of public land before September 2026, which is expected to generate approximately VND96.8 trillion (US$3.7 billion). At the same time, authorities will intensify efforts to recover outstanding tax debts, particularly unpaid land-use fees and land rental payments, which totaled about VND89.3 trillion (US$3.4 billion) as of June 30.
The Department of Finance is also working with relevant agencies to accelerate the implementation, settlement and finalization of public investment projects so that completed works can be put into operation sooner, creating jobs, boosting business activity and supporting socio-economic development. At the same time, the department is advising the city on key strategic initiatives, including drafting the Law on Special Urban Areas and preparing Ho Chi Minh City's 100-year master plan, with the goal of building a smart, sustainable, innovative and highly livable city that ranks among Asia's leading metropolitan areas.
Analyzing the factors affecting economic growth, Mr. Nguyen Khac Hoang, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office, said that amid continued global economic uncertainty, the city must achieve growth of 11.7 percent in the second half of 2026 to meet its annual GRDP target of 10.2 percent, including 11.07 percent in the third quarter and 12.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
To achieve this goal, the city has developed a growth scenario centered on accelerating public investment, stimulating domestic consumption, keeping inflation under control, removing obstacles facing businesses, expanding exports and fostering new growth drivers. Hoang stressed that sustainable growth cannot rely solely on investment and credit expansion but also requires institutional reform, innovation, productivity improvements, decentralization coupled with greater accountability, and accelerated digital transformation.
Ms. Vo Thi Trung Trinh, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Transformation Center, said that the city has built a modern, integrated shared digital infrastructure. Its high-bandwidth MetroNet and dedicated data transmission network now provide stable connectivity between more than 600 locations and the city's data center.
The data center currently operates 1,286 servers, providing storage and processing capacity for the city's information systems, databases and shared digital platforms. Its online conferencing infrastructure also connects city-level authorities with all 168 wards, communes and special administrative zones, enabling simultaneous communication with more than 500 agencies and organizations.
She said that, for the first time, Ho Chi Minh City has established a unified digital infrastructure serving local government agencies, Party organizations, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations on a single technical platform. The Digital Transformation Center will continue working closely with relevant agencies to ensure the stable operation of the system while maintaining information security and cybersecurity. It will also expand infrastructure capacity to support the next phase of shared digital platforms and the effective operation of the city's two-tier local government model.
Concluding the conference, Nguyen Loc Ha, member of the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, urged Party organizations, agencies and local authorities to make breakthroughs in achieving GRDP growth of more than 10 percent.
He also set targets for the digital economy to account for 30 percent of the city's economy, mobilizing more than VND1.2 quadrillion (US$46 billion) for development investment, achieving full public investment disbursement, and removing key bottlenecks to sustain economic growth.
At the same time, the city will continue streamlining its organizational structure, accelerating administrative reform and building a transparent, action-oriented and service-oriented government centered on the needs of citizens and businesses. It will also standardize its civil service, improve recruitment and personnel deployment under the principle of assigning the right people to the right jobs in the right locations, and address overlapping responsibilities and workforce shortages. A key performance indicator (KPI) system will be introduced to objectively measure the performance of agencies, organizations and individual officials based on their work results.
The city will continue strengthening Party discipline and organizational principles, reinforcing administrative discipline and promoting the exemplary role of officials and Party members, particularly senior leaders. Leadership methods will be further modernized to make them more scientific and practical, while improving the quality of implementing Party resolutions, action programs and work plans.
At the conference, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee presented certificates of merit from its chairman to organizations and individuals for outstanding achievements in Party building and the implementation of political tasks during the 2021–2025 period, as well as for excellence in land acquisition and site clearance work during the first half of 2026.
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