Green economy and digital economy create development opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City in the new era

Digital economy needs to grow nearly twice as fast as national rate

In order for the scale of Ho Chi Minh City's digital economy to increase from about VND626,000 billion in 2025 to more than VND1,400 trillion in 2030, the city needs to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 17.5%, nearly double the national digital economic growth rate in 2024. This growth is to offset the gap in lower economic indicators of the former Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau , and is expected to surpass the growth rate of traditional industry, which is the strength of these two localities.

Mr. Lam Dinh Thang - Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City commented: "The question is how and at what speed will Ho Chi Minh City's digital economy develop to contribute substantially and effectively to Ho Chi Minh City's economic growth rate of over 10% from 2026. Therefore, the City chose this as the spearhead, finding solutions from measurement, improving from strategy to common awareness, consulting for businesses, training human resources to promote Ho Chi Minh City's digital economy to develop as expected".

Kinh tế xanh và kinh tế số tạo thế phát triển cho TP.HCM trong kỷ nguyên mới - Ảnh 2. — *Mr. Lam Dinh Thang - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology*

Resolution 98 has given Ho Chi Minh City "leverages", especially for the digital economy, such as the policy of exempting corporate and personal income tax for creative startups, allowing the budget to contribute capital to venture capital funds to order scientific research, and a controlled testing mechanism (sandbox). This is a "license" for the city to pilot new business models and technologies that the law has not kept up with.

Mr. Tran Minh Tuan - Director of the Department of Digital Economy and Digital Society, Ministry of Science and Technology said: "We have a large infrastructure with large data centers in Ho Chi Minh City, large ground information stations in Binh Duong and marine exploitation stations in Ba Ria - Vung Tau. We also have an ecosystem to develop new business models, we will choose successful digital economic models to replicate nationwide".

Kinh tế xanh và kinh tế số tạo thế phát triển cho TP.HCM trong kỷ nguyên mới - Ảnh 3. — *Mr. Tran Minh Tuan - Director of the Department of Digital Economy and Digital Society, Ministry of Science and Technology*

Technology application and green transformation

According to Ms. Phan Thi Thanh Xuan - Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association, "Applying technology to control goods, for example, using QR codes to trace the origin when checking and controlling has ensured compliance and eliminated poor quality goods."

Meanwhile, according to Dr. Do Thien Anh Tuan - Lecturer at the School of Public Policy and Management, Fulbright University Vietnam, the demand here is not only for export but also for the domestic market with the Net Zero 2050 roadmap set by the government. Therefore, smaller-scale enterprises must increasingly adapt to the demands of the economy and need policies to support enterprises, both helping them see the benefits of transformation and supporting the costs for enterprises to transform.

Kinh tế xanh và kinh tế số tạo thế phát triển cho TP.HCM trong kỷ nguyên mới - Ảnh 4. — *Dr. Do Thien Anh Tuan - Lecturer at School of Public Policy and Management, Fulbright University Vietnam*

Ho Chi Minh City's development strategy in the coming period will focus on the digital economy, based on five pillars including institutional improvement, digital infrastructure development, human resource quality improvement, innovation ecosystem building and strengthening cooperation and linkage.

Mr. Tran Minh Tuan - Director of the Department of Digital Economy and Digital Society, Ministry of Science and Technology said: "Ho Chi Minh City will be selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology to test new digital economic models, such as regional financial centers, digital assets, virtual assets, digital currencies, UAVs, breakthrough technologies and data. Data is an asset that needs to be valued and brought to the market to promote the value of data".

Starting from increasing internal strength for enterprises, focusing on supporting key industries to develop specific economic zones, with this orientation, many enterprises expect Ho Chi Minh City to form a network of production - business - investment that complement each other, aiming for the digital economy to contribute over 40% of GRDP by 2030.

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