Ho Chi Minh City plans 100-year development, eyes double-digit growth

Ho Chi Minh City is embarking on a comprehensive 100-year development plan, aiming to transform into a global metropolis. The city's People's Council hosted a workshop on June 2, bringing together hundreds of experts, scientists, managers, and business representatives to lay the scientific groundwork for this ambitious vision.

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The construction and implementation of the Master Plan for Ho Chi Minh City have special significance, identifying breakthrough development strategies, restructuring development space and functional distribution to optimize resources, avoid internal conflicts.

This initiative follows a recent directive from the Politburo, Resolution 09, which emphasizes maximizing the city's potential and creating new, stable, and long-term development dynamics. The plan seeks to restructure the city's development space and functions to optimize resources, avoid conflicts, and enhance resilience to climate change.

The proposed urban spatial structure will evolve from a single-center to a multi-polar, multi-center model, described as a "Polycentric Hyper City." This model will be organized around five key development poles and five strategic axes. The central pole will focus on international finance and services in the Saigon, Cho Lon, and Thu Thiem areas. An eastern innovation pole will concentrate on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and research in Thu Duc, Di An, and Thuan An. A northern industrial and logistics pole will prioritize advanced manufacturing and smart industrial cities in Binh Duong. A southern seaport and free trade pole will serve as an international transshipment gateway and maritime economy hub in Can Gio and Cai Mep. Finally, a coastal pole will focus on international resort tourism and the night economy in Vung Tau, Long Hai, and Ho Tram.

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The task of the master plan is not just the sum of administrative boundaries, but the multiplication of development dynamics, the convergence of resources, and the addition of dư địa to form a global super-city. The urban spatial structure shifts from monocentric to multi-polar, multi-center and evolves into a new generation multi-polar super-city model (Polycentric Hyper City).

Experts at the workshop stressed the need for a paradigm shift in urban planning. Dr. Tran Du Lich, former deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City's National Assembly delegation, argued that the city is no longer a single urban area but is approaching the scale of a mega-region like Shanghai or Tokyo. He called for planning to shift from urban expansion to building an internationally competitive economic and innovation center, and from land-use planning to economic ecosystem planning.

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Planning thinking needs to shift from urban expansion to building an economic center, innovation, with international competitiveness; shift thinking from land planning to economic ecosystem planning.