After 31 years of reunification, Viet Nam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular have achieved many positive changes. Below are four outstanding achievements of Ho Chi Minh City from 1975-2006, excerpted from the Documents of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee in the 8th Representative Congress. 
1. The city has always maintained its political stability, even in the time of domestic difficulties and the world's complicated happenings. This greatly contributed towards the task of ensuring the country’s stability.
2. The city’s economy has been recovered and continually developed, especially in the 20 years of renovation (doi moi). Its economy registered two-digit growth rates for many successive years; various markets have gradually been established and developed. Ho Chi Minh city has promoted its economic partnership with nearby provinces as well as foreign countries. All these have continually contributed to the developing process of the whole country’s economy. From a country of consumption with many social evils, high rate of unemployment and infrastructure basically served for war, Ho Chi Minh City changed into a city of production and trading, with a new generation of laborers, becoming an economic center of the country and continually improved infrastructure system, aiming at providing a better serving for the economic development and the people’s lives.
3. The citizens’ lives were step-by-step stabilized and improved. Ho Chi Minh City started and performed well in hunger eradication and poverty-alleviation movements, house of gratitude building programs, low-income patients supporting programs, "for the children’s smiles" program and caring for Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, etc.
These programs brought in many practical results, playing a meaningful role in developing the city’s economy, politics, culture, society. Besides, they have demonstrated vividly the nature of the socialist system. The "three reductions" program, which was aimed at curbing drug abuse, prostitution and crime in Ho Chi Minh City, brought in positive results, especially in reducing the drug addition rate. Also, the city’s achievements in culture, education and training, science and technology, public health, sports, arts and literatures, press and publication are ceaselessly promoted, satisfying fully various demands of the citizens in their spiritual lives.
4. The city’s political system has been strengthened with the City Party Committee’s leadership capacity and the authorities’ administrative management having been improved, democracy being expanded to all people and the great national unity’s strength having been continually brought into play. The unity within the Party and Ho Chi Minh citizens has become a motivation as well as a common strength which resulted in its success. The unity at party committee level, above all, of the city party committee, has always been maintained. Especially, when the city faced difficulties, the unity helped the citizens to combine their forces, taking the responsibility and overcoming the difficulties.
Excerpted from the Documents of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee in the 8th Representative Congress.
