On the afternoon of August 12, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee convened a meeting to review the socio-economic situation for July and the first seven months of the year while outlining core tasks for August 2026. The meeting was chaired by Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
Proactive, creative, and decisive leadership
Concluding the meeting, Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc noted important bright spots in the city's economy. However, he emphasized that tasks remaining through the end of the year remain heavy, requiring departments, sectors, and localities to exert greater efforts to hit the target of double-digit growth.
Analyzing disbursement rates, the city Chairman noted that the city's rate currently exceeds the national average, but failing to meet targets by year-end would impede double-digit growth and hinder the city's role in guiding private investment. Consequently, public investment must be treated as a core task and a key criterion for evaluating the year-end performance of leaders and heads of agencies.
The Chairman instructed people's committees of communes, wards, and special zones to fully update project details, total capital, and implementation progress using a standardized template and software platform. The Department of Finance is tasked with regularly updating accurate disbursement data to serve as a basis for direction, management, expedited execution, and the prompt removal of bottlenecks.
The Department of Construction was instructed to prepare projects for groundbreakings on Vietnam's National Day holiday on September 2, 2026. Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture and Environment holds responsibility for site clearance, ensuring 100 percent progress with a focus on major projects and the relocation of housing along canals, while addressing obstacles in stagnant projects and old apartment buildings to unlock resources for growth.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee directed relevant units to focus on preparing adequate schools and classrooms for the new school year, decisively implementing the "150 Days and Nights to Complete 1,000 Classrooms" campaign to ensure sufficient capacity for the 2026–2027 academic year.
According to Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc, the remaining months of 2026 are vital for fulfilling annual socio-economic targets, particularly achieving double-digit growth and budget revenue exceeding VND1 trillion (US$38.4 million). Therefore, heads of departments, agencies, and local leaders must uphold their sense of responsibility, remaining proactive, creative, and decisive while aligning with the "150 Days and Nights" peak emulation campaign to achieve 2026 socio-economic development targets". Regular monitoring and troubleshooting will be critical to comprehensively achieving all planned objectives.
Furthermore, the Chairman assigned the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs to use assigned criteria as a benchmark for evaluating and ranking employee emulation. KPI scoring and staff evaluations must be substantive, honest, objective, and free of leniency or casualness.
Breakthrough in the final six months with over 11.7 percent growth
Earlier, Nguyen Khac Hoang, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Statistics Office, reported that to realize the target of over 10 percent growth for the entire year, the city must achieve a breakthrough in the final six months with growth exceeding 11.7 percent, specifically 11.7 percent in the third quarter and 12.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
He also analyzed that pressure on public investment disbursement is immense, with a target of reaching 70 percent by the end of September, requiring a monthly disbursement rate of 13.4 percent, which is double the speed recorded in the early months of the year.
Regarding transport infrastructure development, Director of the Department of Construction Tran Quang Lam stated that the city plans to break ground on 11 projects and inaugurate 5 major projects on the September 2 holiday, notably upgrading National Highway 1, National Highway 13, and sections of Ring Road 4.
The focus for the 2025–2030 period is the project to relocate 41,540 houses along canals through 115 projects, representing a total investment of nearly VND397,000 billion. The city is applying breakthrough mechanisms, such as using social housing for resettlement even for encroaching households ineligible for land compensation, to definitively resolve substandard housing conditions.
Regarding land revenue sources, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Toan Thang stated that Ho Chi Minh City aims to collect VND162 trillion in 2026, having already achieved VND81 trillion or 50 percent. To secure the remaining VND81 trillion, the department is prioritizing three main streams, including auctioning 13 land lots in Thu Thiem during September and October, projected at VND67 trillion, determining specific land prices worth VND10 trillion, and revenue from BT projects at VND2.3 trillion.
For site clearance, Ho Chi Minh City has been allocated over VND56,700 billion in compensation capital this year, achieving nearly 65 percent disbursement to date, with 26 key projects reaching over 73 percent. The department applies a "yellow card, red card" warning mechanism for delayed investors and clearly delineates responsibilities between compensation and construction phases to accelerate public investment progress.
Regarding budget revenue targets of VND1 quadrillion, Giang Van Hien, Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, reported that during the first seven months of 2026, tax collections reached VND466,940 billion, fulfilling 58.4 percent of the VND800 trillion goal. To fulfill the plan, he proposed that the city's People's Committee direct departments and sectors to closely coordinate across revenue sources.
According to Director Tang Chi Thuong of the Department of Health, as of August 11, the city recorded 2,175,943 individuals undergoing health check-ups and screenings, reaching 16.44 percent of the population. While early weeks recorded only 20,000 to 60,000 people per week, certain recent weeks have exceeded 300,000 individuals. To date, 22 localities have achieved a rate exceeding 30 percent, with An Nhon Tay Ward reaching over 69 percent.
