Unlocking the Income Trap: Ho Chi Minh City’s Quest for Solutions

On August 24th, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee organized a workshop to consult experts on the orientation of the city’s socio-economic development for the period of 2026-2030.

Opening the workshop, Chairman of the City People’s Committee, Phan Van Mai, stated that the workshop aimed to gather expert opinions to contribute to the city’s socio-economic development plan for the upcoming 2025-2030 term.

Mr. Mai shared that, so far, there has been a first draft of the documents for both the Central and the City. However, the City’s People’s Committee agreed that the delegates should discuss with an open mindset, envisioning the city’s socio-economic development by 2030 and beyond.

Additionally, Mr. Mai suggested that, along with expert presentations, the workshop should also include discussions to clarify and select key points to be included in two crucial documents: the Socio-Economic Development Plan until 2030 and the Political Report of the City Party Committee. These documents will provide guidance for the city’s future direction.

Citing Resolution 31 of the Politburo on the orientation, tasks, and goals for Ho Chi Minh City’s development towards 2030, with a vision towards 2045, Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized the goal of making Ho Chi Minh City a civilized, modern, and innovative city with high-quality human resources by 2030.

To achieve this goal and define what it means for Ho Chi Minh City to be “civilized” and “modern,” there is a need for quantitative targets. For instance, the city aims to be a “modern service and industrial city, a leader in digital economy and society, and a national center for economics, finance, trade, culture, education, and science and technology.” Therefore, it is essential to determine the desired state of the city’s industry and services by 2030, setting quantitative targets and choosing focal points and implementation solutions.

“In other words, we need to identify key tasks and solutions to achieve the goals by 2030 and lay the foundation for the subsequent period in terms of socio-economic development,” he added.

Chairman Phan Van Mai also emphasized that, according to many organizations and experts, Vietnam has a decade left to decide whether it can escape the “middle-income trap” or remain stagnant. Therefore, it is crucial to plan strategic orientations, tasks, and socio-economic solutions towards 2030, ensuring both the completion of short-term goals for the current term and the establishment of a foundation for the city to contribute to the country’s escape from the middle-income trap by 2035.

The objective is to identify strategic bottlenecks and focus on crucial aspects to enable the city to contribute to the country’s efforts in escaping the middle-income trap and continuing its development.

“While we discuss long-term goals, we must also focus on the immediate future. From now until the end of the next year, which marks the end of the current term, we need to concentrate on completing the goals and targets of this term and addressing fundamental bottlenecks to lay the foundation for the 2025-2030 term,” emphasized Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, Phan Van Mai.