The event was chaired by Standing Vice Chairman of the City People’s Committee and Head of the HCMC Steering Committee for the 2026 Economic Census, Nguyen Loc Ha.
Speaking at the conference, head of the municipal Statistics Office, Nguyen Khac Hoang, described the collected data as a "digital treasure trove" that must be leveraged to enhance urban management and governance.
According to Mr. Hoang, Ho Chi Minh City is home to 296,759 active, revenue-generating enterprises, accounting for nearly 35 percent of the national total. However, approximately 117,000 businesses remain non-operational or are still in the investment phase.
He urged municipal departments and agencies, particularly tax and financial authorities, to collaborate on reviewing untraceable businesses or those with unconfirmed addresses identified during the census, ensuring an accurate count of the city's active business landscape.
Delivering his remarks, Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Loc Ha highly appreciated the dedication of over 10,000 investigators and supervisors. He emphasized that the primary value of the economic census lies not in the number of completed questionnaires but in the ability to harness, analyze, and transform the data into development policies.
Mr. Ha instructed municipal departments to utilize the statistical findings as a baseline for forecasting trends, evaluating policy efficacy, and advising on practical economic solutions tailored to modern urban governance.
On this occasion, numerous collectives and individuals were awarded Certificates of Merit from the Minister of Finance and the Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the 2026 Economic Census.
Key figures
According to the census results, Ho Chi Minh City accounts for 2 percent of the land area, 13.4 percent of the population, and 23.11 percent of GDP of the country; and approximately 32.7 percent of national budget revenue.
By the end of 2025, the city was home to 964,490 economic, public service, and religious establishments, employing more than 5.8 million workers. The business sector employed 4.66 million people, accounting for 80.1 percent of the workforce, while the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector represented only 1.5 percent of all establishments but employed 27.7 percent of total workers.
The service sector accounted for 75.4 percent of all enterprises and 95.5 percent of household business establishments. The combined capital of active enterprises reached VND17.42 quadrillion (US$663 million), up 35.5 percent compared with the 2020 economic census.
