HCMC Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan (C) shakes hands with an overseas Vietnamese at a meeting on April 6 in HCMC. The city has called on suggestions from overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, businessmen to develop a financial center and an innovation urban center. (Photo: NLDO)
The city has selected districts 2, 9, and Thu Duc District, in which the innovation urban area will be built. The area is expected to be developed by intellectuals, deploying new technology and attracting the most talented and intellectual employees.
Also, the area should be a source of inspiration for 10 million local residents in the city, said Nhan.
City Party secretary Nhan said he expects overseas Vietnamese to make suggestions on how to attract the most talented lecturers and experts to the urban area, to work and develop innovations, create ideal living conditions for them, as well as management policies for the urban area.
With 300 years of development, the city boasts a wide variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, alongside significant contributions to the country’s economy. The city should be home to innovations, Nhan noted.
However, many existing problems should be urgently addressed to successfully develop the projects. The city’s population continues rising by one million people every five years, adding that poor infrastructure facilities have triggered frequent traffic congestion, along with housing and waste issues.
Commenting on the innovation urban development plan for the city, architect Ngo Viet Nam Son noted that the city should develop detailed preparations on sources of investment capital, organizing plans, and methods to attract local residents to move to the innovation urban area.
Architect Son suggested the city establish a connection among an economic zone in Thu Thiem, a university zone and a logistics zone, aiming to create a driving force for growth in the city and neighboring regions.
As for the financial center, Peter Hong, vice chairman of the Business Association of Overseas Vietnamese, said that finance forms the backbone of the city’s economy, thus developing an economic zone in Thu Thiem is definitely the correct strategy. However, the city has to work out more efficient solutions to remove bottlenecks related to the economic zone.
To build such an international-level financial center, Hong proposed the city find ways to approach and attract human resources from major financial corporations, as well as issue policies to ensure fairness among developing financial enterprises.
The meeting today was attended by many high-ranking officials from the city, including chairman of the People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong, as well as approximately 50 overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and businessmen.
