Ho Chi Minh City can become the 'Silicon Valley' of Southeast Asia

With its outstanding advantages, if it has a reasonable investment strategy, Ho Chi Minh City can completely become a "Silicon Valley" of Southeast Asia in the coming years.

Dr. Vo Xuan Hoai - Photo: B.NGOC

Dr. Vo Xuan Hoai, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC), shared with Tuoi Tre Online.

Convergence of many development advantages

According to Mr. Hoai, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau all have strengths in science, technology, and innovation.

Ho Chi Minh City is the financial, service, science and technology, and innovation center of the region. Binh Duong is the industrial capital with many high-tech FDI enterprises and factories in operation.

Ba Ria - Vung Tau plays a connecting role with Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong through a large-scale, modern, deep-water seaport system.

The merger of three industrial centers has created a city with outstanding economic scale, with many advantages for developing science, technology, innovation and digital transformation.

Regarding land for development, after the merger, Ho Chi Minh City will have a large enough land fund to develop industry and high technology, with strategic industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, AI, aerospace, manufacturing of unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.

Looking at the development foundation, for many years, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong have always led the country in attracting FDI, especially high-tech capital. The city has been leading in attracting investment in the fields of high technology, electronics, as well as strategic technology industries for many years.

Thus, in terms of financial resources, land fund, industrial foundation and the presence of leading FDI investors, Ho Chi Minh City is superior to other provinces and cities across the country.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City has the advantage of a large population, a large concentration of experts, a highly educated and skilled workforce. A large enough market size combined with an open development policy, a special mechanism, and a series of outstanding development incentives are also unique advantages.

For a long time, Ho Chi Minh City has also been the largest center for training high-quality human resources in the country, with hundreds of universities and vocational training facilities located in the area.

It can be seen that Ho Chi Minh City has all the elements to become a leading center of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation in the region.

Investing in clean power sources

Dr. Hoai said that Ho Chi Minh City also faces a number of difficulties such as: overloaded traffic infrastructure, especially the roads connecting to seaports that are often congested, incomplete public transport services, housing shortage, and expensive housing prices.

In addition, if Ho Chi Minh City wants to develop strategic and high-tech industries, it must first complete its power infrastructure system. This is an important factor in developing high-tech industries.

To develop high-tech industries, especially strategic technology industries, Ho Chi Minh City not only needs to invest in power plants with large enough capacity, but also needs to invest in clean electricity sources for production.

High-tech and strategic industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, AI, and the development of large data centers always require clean and stable power sources. Therefore, investment in developing the city's power infrastructure must be one step ahead.

Second, it is necessary to complete the transport infrastructure system, build belt roads, expressways, and increase the connection between the road system and sea routes, railways, and airways. For example, investing in railways and roads connecting Long Thanh airport with Tan Son Nhat airport, and routes connecting seaports with the central areas of Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong.

A very important factor in attracting investment in high technology, semiconductor industry, and AI is high-quality human resources, a team of good engineers and experts.

If the city wants to become a high-tech industrial center in the coming years, in addition to locally trained human resources, it must soon develop a policy to attract talent, especially talented Vietnamese engineers abroad, to contribute to development.

Finally, promoting science and technology and innovation always requires a good environment, so the city should form innovation centers and R&D centers in key development areas.

And to do this, we always need an attractive enough investment incentive mechanism to attract investment in high-tech and strategic technology industries such as AI, semiconductors, aerospace, and drone manufacturing.

Back to topic

Dr. VO XUAN HOAI (DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INNOVATION CENTER) - BAO NGOC

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tp-hcm-co-the-tro-thanh-silicon-valley-khu-vuc-dong-nam-a-20250908203849056.htm