To achieve its double-digit growth target, Ho Chi Minh City needs not only more investment capital but, more importantly, higher productivity, expanded capital mobilization channels, and mechanisms enabling businesses to contribute to addressing the city's major challenges.
On August 8, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Business Associations (HUBA) held its HUBA Business Coffee program under the theme “Businesses Joining Forces for Double-Digit Growth.”
According to Dr. Can Van Luc, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, Ho Chi Minh City's GRDP grew by about 8.55 percent in the first six months of 2026, providing a positive foundation. However, to achieve double-digit growth for the full year, the city needs to accelerate more strongly. Growth momentum will also depend on its ability to simultaneously improve five pillars: science, technology and innovation; human resources; infrastructure; mobilization and allocation of financial resources; and institutional quality and implementation effectiveness.
Investment remains the most important growth driver. According to Dr. Can Van Luc, to create greater room for growth, Ho Chi Minh City needs to increase total social investment by at least 13 percent—15 percent.
The growth challenge is not simply about securing more capital but also about using capital more efficiently. Businesses need to shift from a focus on expanding scale to increasing added value. Dr. Can Van Luc said this requires businesses to step up investment in technology, data, AI, research and development (R&D), deep processing, and new product development, while proactively making use of Ho Chi Minh City's new mechanisms to expand their growth opportunities.
As demand for capital to upgrade technology and expand production continues to rise, relying solely on bank credit is no longer an appropriate approach. Dr. Tran Du Lich said the economy's financial structure needs to be rebalanced toward stronger development of the capital market, allowing it to share the role of providing medium- and long-term resources with the banking system.
Mr. Tu Tien Phat, CEO of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), said businesses now have a wide range of capital-raising options, from corporate bonds and investment funds to international loans. However, these sources of funding are available only to businesses that meet increasingly stringent requirements for corporate governance, financial transparency, and risk management.
Sharing this view, Chairman of HUBA Nguyen Ngoc Hoa emphasized that businesses seeking access to high-quality capital must enhance their “capital absorption capacity” by standardizing corporate governance, improving financial reporting transparency, pursuing digital and green transformation, and adopting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. Once businesses have the necessary capacity, capital from banks, investment funds, and international financial institutions can effectively flow into production, technological innovation, and productivity enhancement.
Experts said the double-digit growth target would be difficult to achieve if businesses continued to operate and develop in isolation. What Ho Chi Minh City needs now is a mechanism that enables businesses and financial institutions to work alongside the authorities in the spirit of “joint discussion, joint action, joint problem-solving, and shared benefits.” When resources are connected, business capacity is strengthened, and new mechanisms are implemented in a coordinated manner, double-digit growth will no longer be merely a policy target but the outcome of a business ecosystem growing together.
