Head Hoang Tung of the Urban Affairs Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council told Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper that since August, the council has passed 42 resolutions to implement legislation across a wide range of sectors, including urban development, resource mobilization, high-tech zones, free trade zones, logistics, the marine economy, culture, human resources, and new financial mechanisms.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has approved the city's Master Plan for 2025–2050, with a 100-year vision, following a review by the Urban Affairs Committee. The plan provides a strategic framework for reshaping the city's development landscape, establishing key growth hubs, and aligning urban planning with infrastructure development, land use, and investment resources.
According to Mr. Hoang Tung, in the land sector, the council has approved a third-round 2026 list of 40 projects subject to land recovery, covering an estimated 345 hectares. It has also approved 147 land plots, totaling about 854 hectares, for pilot commercial housing projects under National Assembly Resolution 171, as well as six land plots totaling about 445 hectares for investor selection through bidding.
For each resolution, the responsible agency, required tasks, completion deadlines, and specific deliverables must be clearly identified. Only then can implementation be monitored effectively and situations avoided in which resolutions take effect but are slow to produce real-world results, the Head of the Urban Affairs Committee said.
In particular, he added, implementation of the Urban Development Law involves many new mechanisms with broad impacts across multiple departments, sectors, and localities. Therefore, immediately after a resolution takes effect, authorities will classify provisions into those that can be implemented immediately; those requiring regulations or guidance from the city administration or relevant agencies; and those requiring resource preparation, land funds, projects, or other technical conditions.
Measures that can be carried out immediately must have specific timelines. For measures that cannot yet be implemented, authorities must identify missing conditions, determine which agency is responsible, and set deadlines for fulfilling those requirements, he said.
The approval of project lists by the People's Council serves only as a basis for continuing pilot mechanisms and does not replace procedures related to investment, land, planning, or other legal requirements. As a result, future oversight must go a step further by determining how many of the 147 land plots are eligible for implementation, how many are undergoing procedures, what obstacles remain, and which agencies are responsible for resolving them.
He revealed that the overarching principle is that resolutions must not remain on paper, but legal requirements must not be bypassed in the interest of speed. The more flexible the mechanism, the greater the need for accountability, transparency, and public disclosure.
During the final two months of the year, three groups of tasks will be prioritized. The first is the implementation and execution of resolutions related to the Urban Development Law. With 42 resolutions already approved, a unified monitoring system is needed to track which resolutions have been implemented, which are being prepared, and which remain stalled and why.
The second group involves land, planning, and projects requiring substantial resources, according to Mr. Hoang Tung. These areas require close oversight because newly granted powers can generate significant development resources, but delays in implementation can turn development opportunities into a form of waste.
For land recovery lists, pilot commercial housing sites, investor-selection bidding projects, and major infrastructure developments, authorities must monitor everything from procedural progress and site clearance to land use after allocation.
The third priority is implementation of the Ho Chi Minh City Master Plan for 2025-2050, with a 100-year vision. Following approval of the plan, the key challenge is rapidly translating broad strategic directions into specific programs, plans, and projects, while ensuring consistency between the master plan and urban planning, subdivision planning, transportation planning, transit-oriented development (TOD), and land use plans.
He announced that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council will oversee each task based on concrete outcomes, including the level of completion, whether resources have been put into use, which bottlenecks have been removed, and what benefits residents and businesses ultimately receive.
Ho Chi Minh City details nearly 250 provisions of the Law on Urban Development
On November 4, Director Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Justice said the city had made significant progress in developing the legal framework for implementing the Law on Urban Development. The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council has issued 42 resolutions, while municipal departments and agencies have completed the drafting of 16 of the 53 decisions to be issued by the municipal People’s Committee, along with half of the decisions to be issued by the committee chairperson.
“This is a substantial and unprecedented workload, involving nearly 250 provisions and clauses that need to be translated into specific regulations. These cover multiple areas of state management and require close coordination among departments, agencies and local authorities,” Ms. Hanh said.
According to her, one of the most notable changes in implementing the law is a shift in institutional development thinking. Rather than simply detailing existing regulations, the city is moving toward researching and designing new, breakthrough mechanisms and policies that reflect its specific characteristics and development needs.
Coordination between the departments leading the drafting process and relevant ministries has also been strengthened through flexible consultation methods, including written feedback and consultation conferences.
Despite the initial progress, she pointed to several challenges in implementing the law. The volume of legal documents requiring drafting and issuance is substantial, while the implementation timeline is tight and involves multiple sectors and drafting agencies. Many provisions are also new and unprecedented, particularly those concerning management mechanisms, decentralization, delegation of authority and policy implementation arrangements.
To address these challenges, the Department of Justice will advise the City People’s Committee to strengthen coordination among departments and agencies from the earliest stages of policy proposal and development, clearly designate lead agencies and define the responsibilities of each unit. It will also seek greater involvement from the business community, experts, scientists and legal training institutions in formulating and refining policies.
