The Law on Urban Development serves as a foundation for Ho Chi Minh City to further refine its institutional framework, reorganize its development landscape, and better leverage resources to innovate its growth and development models. To ensure the Law is effectively implemented, alongside urgent execution efforts, the city is focusing on robust communication to foster a unified understanding among officials and Party members, as well as broad public consensus.
HCMC pushes for effective implementation and communication of new urban development law
The National Assembly's passage of the Law on Urban Development is merely the first step; the crucial next phase is implementation to ensure the Law’s provisions are applied synchronously and effectively in practice. This requirement is particularly significant for Ho Chi Minh City, given its expanded development scope, the need for higher standards of governance, and the critical tasks assigned by the central government that impact both the region and the nation.
Even during the drafting phase while gathering input from central and local agencies and experts, the city proactively conducted information and outreach campaigns to ensure officials, Party members, civil servants, public employees, businesses, and the general public fully understood the Law's contents. The city views this communication as an integral part of the implementation process, recognizing that without timely and targeted information, the new regulations would struggle to achieve their full practical impact.
First and foremost, the city is focusing on explaining the significance of the Law on Urban Development for its dynamic growth and highlighting specific regulations that directly affect different stakeholder groups. For officials, civil servants, and public employees, the focus is on functions, duties, authority, and implementation responsibilities.
The city provides clarity on regulations concerning investment, urban planning, infrastructure, and finance for businesses. For the public, the emphasis is placed on matters directly associated with urban planning, housing, transportation, the environment, urban spaces, and the standard of public services. In its dissemination efforts, the city has recognized the importance of remaining connected to the grassroots level, actively sharing information, and assessing public opinion at an early stage.
Considering the extensive area of the city and its varied population, along with the swift dissemination of information through digital channels, it is essential to quickly address any ambiguities that may confuse the public or lead to misinterpretation. These clarifications should be based on official, credible, and easily accessible information.
In addition to sharing information, the city utilizes its network of communicators and speakers, along with its grassroots information systems, to convey the law's content to appropriate locations and specific audiences, thus facilitating the prompt recognition of issues that may arise during its implementation.
A key requirement demanding special attention is the evaluation of dissemination effectiveness. At the conference dedicated to grasping and implementing the Resolution of the 3rd Plenum of the 14th Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary Le Quoc Phong of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee called for improvements in the quality of studying, understanding, and implementing the resolution. He directed the city to develop a set of criteria to quantify learning outcomes and encouraged Party committees to proactively create suitable tools for genuinely assessing the level of comprehension, awareness, and actual results.
This method ought to be effectively utilized for the distribution of the Law on Urban Development. Efforts should extend beyond simply counting the number of dissemination sessions, participants, or distributed materials; rather, they must assess the level of comprehension among officials, Party members, businesses, and the general public, pinpoint any lingering areas of confusion, and monitor the changes in the law's application at the grassroots level. Only in this way can the content and methods of dissemination be modified promptly to cater to particular localities and target demographics.
Ho Chi Minh City takes on greater responsibilities
The Law on Urban Development was passed at a time when Ho Chi Minh City is entering a phase of development characterized by exceptionally high demands. The Politburo’s Resolution 09-NQ/TW, which was signed on May 19, 2026, on the construction and development of Ho Chi Minh City in the new era, establishes that the city must play a pioneering and trailblazing role concerning development models, institutional frameworks, and governance methods; it must become a driving force for national growth and a key hub for innovation and integration. The city Party Committee’s action program implementing Resolution 09-NQ/TW has also been issued to translate the Politburo’s viewpoints, objectives, tasks, and solutions into the city's practical reality.
Therefore, communication efforts regarding the Law on Urban Development must highlight Ho Chi Minh City’s position, role, and responsibilities during this period. The city recognizes that the Law’s mechanisms create greater scope for it to proactively manage its own development. This opportunity entails a requirement for the city to utilize resources more effectively, enhance governance capacity, generate new growth drivers, and make greater contributions to the region and the nation.
Alongside the Law's provisions, Ho Chi Minh City’s development orientations must be communicated in conjunction with its role regarding the region and the country as a whole. The city is taking the lead in pioneering new development models, organizing urban space, and advancing connectivity infrastructure, science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation.
Therefore, the results achieved must be evaluated based on their effectiveness for the city, as well as their capacity to foster connectivity, facilitate the sharing of experiences, and create development opportunities for other localities. Regarding high-impact programs and projects, particularly those concerning regional connectivity infrastructure and urban railways, communication efforts must ensure the public clearly understands the objectives, benefits, and potential impacts on their daily lives. In the realms of science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, it is essential to clarify the opportunities for participation available to businesses, the intellectual community, the workforce, and the general public.
The city also prioritizes raising awareness among officials and civil servants, ensuring they deeply understand the provisions of the law, as they are the ones directly responsible for its implementation. Upon being granted additional authority, each official must thoroughly grasp the relevant regulations and their own responsibilities, while also being capable of explaining matters within their purview to citizens and businesses.
For provisions that are novel or complex, unified guidelines are necessary to minimize divergent interpretations during implementation. Communication efforts must also emphasize that authority goes hand-in-hand with responsibility; officials need to understand that increased authority entails higher expectations regarding implementation capacity, accountability, and performance efficiency.
In its outreach and engagement initiatives, the city distinctly recognizes the populace as the primary drivers of urban development. Residents should be thoroughly informed about policies, projects, and regulations that impact their lives, and they must have readily available avenues to express any concerns that may emerge.
The Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations that maintain close ties with the community should proactively gather grassroots feedback; meanwhile, the media should continue to explain policies through specific stories and issues, highlighting both successful practices and obstacles that require resolution. In this way, information reaches the public while simultaneously enabling leadership and management bodies to identify issues requiring attention at an early stage.
