Ho Chi Minh City Targets Next-Gen FDI for Innovation and Green Growth

Ho Chi Minh City is significantly shifting its foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction strategy from labor-intensive industries to high-value-added, advanced technology sectors. The city is currently seeking investment for approximately 250 projects across nine priority sectors, including the development of an International Financial Centre, digital finance, smart banking, data infrastructure, large-scale logistics and port development, transport infrastructure supporting trade and import-export activities, green industries, clean energy, and next-generation industrial parks. This strategic shift is driven by the Vietnamese government's goals of achieving "green growth" and "sustainable development." Ho Chi Minh City aims to qualitatively upgrade its economy not just by attracting capital, but by building an innovation ecosystem that promotes technology transfer and the development of a skilled workforce. Specifically, by actively seeking investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor sectors, the city intends to advance Vietnam's industrial structure and enhance its international competitiveness. Under Vietnam's one-party system, government industrial policy strongly dictates the direction of economic growth. This move by Ho Chi Minh City is seen as part of that policy, an attempt to respond to the global supply chain restructuring and the rising worldwide demand for advanced technologies. While Vietnam has strong economic ties with China, it has also been actively attracting investment from other countries in recent years to diversify geopolitical risks. This new strategy is believed to be linked to such diversification efforts.