More room for growth needs to be opened up
Ho Chi Minh City is facing the requirement to accelerate to achieve the double-digit growth target, in the context that traditional drivers need to be strengthened. To expand growth potential, the city needs to exploit existing resources more effectively, while creating new momentum for the economy.
One of those potentials is to increase value from tourism activities, instead of just focusing on increasing the number of visitors. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky - Chairman of Vietravel's Board of Directors - said that it is necessary to invest more strongly in tourism products, tours, entertainment, night economy and exploit local cultural and culinary resources.
According to Mr. Ky, the night economy is expected to create great value, but so far no locality has proven its clear effectiveness. Many places still lack resources to build professional cultural and culinary products, making operations fragmented and unstable. In the coming time, Vietravel expects the number of visitors to increase by about 35-40% compared to the same period, and at the same time continue to expand the source market and promote tourism.
Not only tourism, creating more growth momentum is also a requirement for the business community. Mr. Le Huu Nghia - General Director of Le Thanh Construction Trading Co., Ltd. - said that to achieve the double-digit growth target, besides the growth of businesses, Ho Chi Minh City still has a lot of room to exploit.
In the immediate future, the city needs to remove obstacles in projects to create growth momentum in the short term. In the long term, drivers such as digital transformation, the International Financial Center and new fields need to be deployed synchronously, creating more contributions to growth in the following years" - Mr. Nghia said.
These solutions need to be implemented right from today to create results in the 2027-2028 period. Businesses also expect the business situation from now until the end of the year to improve.
Need a boost to achieve double-digit goals
On August 8, at the HUBA Business Coffee program, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa - Chairman of HUBA said that the double-digit growth target is both an opportunity and a major challenge for the business community. To achieve this goal, it requires the synergy between businesses, the State and the whole society.
According to Mr. Hoa, one of the major bottlenecks today is resources, especially capital for growth. Therefore, it is necessary to have policies to create attractiveness to mobilize more new capital sources. Promoting equitization and selling state capital in some enterprises can create opportunities to attract investors and bring new cash flow into the economy.
Besides the capital problem, businesses also expect the transition to a two-level government model to be implemented quickly, clearly defining responsibilities between the city level and the ward and commune level. When procedures, processes and access to land and resources are removed, businesses will be more convenient in project implementation.
In the opposite direction, businesses must also self-adjust strategies, strengthen human resource training, proactively transform digitally and greenly to adapt to new market requirements.
According to Dr. Can Van Luc - member of the National Monetary and Financial Policy Advisory Council, HCMC's GRDP in the first 6 months of 2026 increased by about 8.55%, creating a positive foundation. However, for the whole year to achieve double-digit growth, in the remaining months, the city needs a stronger acceleration.
Growth momentum depends on the ability to simultaneously improve 5 pillars including science - technology and innovation; human resources; infrastructure; mobilization and allocation of financial resources; institutional quality and implementation efficiency.
If we want double-digit growth, the city must increase investment capital by at least 13-15%. Therefore, the city needs to continue to make efforts in the coming time" - Mr. Luc emphasized.
However, the growth problem lies not only in having more capital but also in how to use capital effectively. Businesses need to shift from thinking about expanding scale to increasing added value, increasing investment in technology, data, artificial intelligence (AI), research and development, deep processing and new product development.
At the same time, businesses need to proactively exploit Ho Chi Minh City's new mechanisms to expand the growth space, thereby turning resources into competitiveness and creating a foundation for sustainable growth in the coming years.
