The event, held by the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and People’s Committee, in coordination with the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy; co-chaired by Head of the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy Nguyen Thanh Nghi; Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Nguyen Van Duoc, and Deputy Head of the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the commission Nguyen Duc Hien.
In his opening remarks, Head of the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy Nguyen Thanh Nghi emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City is on the path to becoming “a mega-city”, a regional and global center for finance, production, logistics and innovation.
According to him, National Assembly Resolution No. 98/2023/QH15 on piloting some special mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City, known as Resolution 98, has created a positive impact, helping the city’s economy recover and grow. However, it has not yet fully resolved structural “bottlenecks,” particularly in attracting investment and strategic investors.
The workshop is particularly significant as it coincides with the National Assembly’s review of amendments to Resolution 98, which include new measures to attract strategic investors.
Attending and speaking at the workshop, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Van Duoc highlighted three key issues for discussion. These include defining the crucial role of strategic investors as development partners rather than merely capital contributors to individual projects for business purposes; continuing to study and propose an expanded list of priority sectors and projects to attract strategic investors according to growth pillars; and designing a comprehensive policy framework covering procedures for planning approval, project approval, and investor selection, along with flexible, specific and sector-tailored policies that align with international practices.
At the discussion session, Prof. Dr. Vu Minh Khuong from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore shared strategies, institutional frameworks, priorities and solutions for attracting strategic investors to Ho Chi Minh City.
He proposed several upgrades to Resolution 98, including establishment of a Southeastern Regional Development Agency; ensuring that strategic investors in HCMC receive incentives competitive with Singapore, Dubai, Ireland and China’s free trade zones; allowing Ho Chi Minh City to generate new revenue linked to endogenous development; piloting a sandbox mechanism; and creating a “co-develop and co-create” framework in HCMC’s development and ecosystem with 20–50 leading global corporations in strategic sectors.
Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Head of the Institute for Research on Central Economic Management, noted that with its superior economic capacity compared to other localities, vast development space and institutional support and facilitation from the Party and State, Ho Chi Minh City now covers all the conditions to change approaches, remove barriers and drive innovative and creative governance in development.
Dr. Tran Du Lich, Chairman of the Advisory Council for Implementation of Resolution 98, also put forward three key proposals, including expanding the list of sectors and industries to attract strategic investors; introducing greater flexibility in the process of selecting strategic investors; and building outstanding, project-specific incentive policies.
Concluding at the workshop, Head of the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy Nguyen Thanh Nghi highlighted several new and highly innovative proposals.
Among them are proposals to define sectoral criteria for attracting strategic investors; establish a dedicated “sandbox resolution” for Ho Chi Minh City; create international-standard innovation zones or free trade areas to pilot new economic models, flexible tax policies and global financial mechanisms; develop the metro network and TOD urban system; streamline administrative procedures with “super-fast” investment certificate issuance within 48 hours for strategic projects, including liability exemptions for proactive officials; and implement talent-attraction strategies with preferential personal income tax and grant golden residency cards.
