Ho Chi Minh City’s journey toward becoming a capital of talent
The ambition to make Ho Chi Minh City a magnet for regional and global talent reflects its long-term strategy for sustainable development through science, technology, and innovation. This vision aligns with the city’s broader goal of becoming an international megacity, ranking among the world’s top 100 most livable cities, and serving as a pioneering force driving Vietnam’s overall growth.
As the country’s most populous and economically vibrant urban center, Ho Chi Minh City possesses a young and dynamic workforce. Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Van Duoc emphasized that the city is home to numerous leading experts, scientists, and entrepreneurs who are eager to contribute to its progress. The presence of large domestic and international corporations further strengthens its foundation for development—an advantage few localities share.
Associate Professor Cao Minh Tri, Head of the Faculty of Management at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, noted that the city’s expanding economic landscape, encompassing high-tech industries, logistics, seaports, and renewable energy—offers diverse job opportunities. Combined with the city’s established strengths in technology, economics, and international finance, these factors are expected to spark new waves of employment and attract talent in key fields such as engineering, management, and artificial intelligence.
With its large population and economic scale, Ho Chi Minh City holds a competitive edge over other major urban centers, positioning itself as an appealing destination for top-tier professionals. According to Associate Professor Hoang Cong Gia Khanh, Principal of the University of Economics and Law under Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, the city’s robust academic ecosystem comprising over 70 universities, numerous research institutes, vocational training centers, and innovation hubs provides a solid foundation for realizing its talent-driven vision.
HCMC is also recognized as the ‘startup capital’ - housing the largest concentration of technology and innovation enterprises in the country. However, the new context necessitates a transformative shift. The city must move beyond a growth model heavily reliant on capital, cheap labor, and land resources, transitioning instead to growth driven by productivity, quality, and efficiency. To achieve this, a key factor is the availability of high-quality human resources, particularly talent in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, digital technology, healthcare, finance, and urban management. To address this situation, experts assert that the city's labor force must change to fulfill these needs. Their advice is for the city to launch retraining and skill-enhancement initiatives for workers.
Furthermore, because many universities aren't currently under city oversight, it makes it difficult for the city to invest in these institutions for research or to execute its mission of service procurement. Consequently, a system is required that allows Ho Chi Minh City to use its budget to purchase services from universities.
The city acts to realize aspirations
Analyzing the advantages and vision of Ho Chi Minh City in developing human resources and attracting talent, experts said that the city needs specific actions and long-term strategies. According to Associate Professor Cao Minh Tri, in order for the vision of a smart city to become a reality, Ho Chi Minh City needs a comprehensive and synchronous strategy in attracting and developing high-quality human resources.
First of all, the city needs to build a policy to attract internationally competitive talent. Specifically, the city designs attractive incentive packages on taxes, housing, research support through investment funds for innovation, and international cooperation for experts. At the same time, it is impossible to ignore family support policies such as health care, international schools, or long-term visas.
This is a key solution for this human resource to feel secure in working and stay long-term. The city also needs to create an attractive working and living environment: invest in satellite urban areas with an advanced quality of life with modern infrastructure, green space, and high-end amenities such as international hospitals, high-quality schools and cultural centers while focusing on personalizing work experiences and a diverse and inclusive working environment.
In addition, the city needs to invest heavily in universities and research institutes, focusing on the fields of law, administration, information technology, artificial intelligence, and big data.
Training programs must meet international standards, combining practice in high-tech parks or smart port projects. At the same time, the city has a mechanism to encourage large enterprises to cooperate with universities to develop practical training programs, ensuring that students soon meet social needs.
Meanwhile, Associate Professor Le Tuan Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thu Dau Mot University, assessed that Ho Chi Minh City has a policy to attract high-quality human resources, especially in science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation.
In the coming time, the city needs to have a breakthrough program in training and attracting human resources. In training, it is necessary to introduce a 3-party cooperation model (state-led, experts, universities, enterprises including industrial parks), combining research training to build resources; have a cluster and industry model that combines training in research, innovation, startups, testing, production, and commercialization.
Therefore, it is necessary to form an innovative startup ecosystem that is closely linked and spread across all fields, helping to attract experts, produce high-tech products and transform existing industrial parks. With the right strategy, high political determination, and consensus from society and the business community, Ho Chi Minh City can completely realize its dream of becoming a place where talents converge, a launching pad for intelligence and creativity.
