Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam News 

About Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City is the economic center of Vietnam. Some 300,000 businesses, including many large enterprises, are involved in high-tech, electronic, processing and light industries as well as construction, building materials and agro-products.

Investors are pouring in money into the city. Total local private investment was 160,000 billion dong ($10 billion USD) with 18,500 newly founded companies. Investment is trended to hi-tech and services, real estate projects.

Currently, the city has 15 industrial parks and export-processing zones, in addition to the Quang Trung Software Park and the Saigon Hi-Tech Park. Intel invested about 1 billion dollar factory in the city.

There are 171 medium and large scale markets, tens of supermarket chains, dozens of luxury shopping malls and many modern fashion or beauty centers.

There are many malls and shopping plazas developing in the city. Over 50 banks with hundreds of branches and about 20 insurance companies are situated inside the city. The first first stock exchange of Vietnam was opened in the city in 2001.

In 2007, the city's Gross Domestic Product was estimated at $14.3 billion, or about $2,180 per capita, (up 12.6 percent on 2006) and accounting for 20 percent GDP of the country. The GDP calculating Parity Purchasing Power method (PPP), attained $71.5 billion, or about $10,870 per capita (approximately 3 times higher than the country's average).

The city's Industrial Product Value was $6.4 billion, equivalent to 30 percent of the whole nation. Export - Import Turnover through HCMC ports took $36 billion, or 40 percent of the national total, of which, export revenue reached $18.3 billion, accounted for 40 percent of Vietnam’s total export revenue.

At 2007, Ho Chi Minh City has also contributed about 20.5 percent to the national budget's revenue annually.

In 2007, this city contributed 92,000 billion dong (approx. $6 billion), an increase of 30 percent compared to that of 2006. In 2007, this city served 3 million foreign tourists, made up 70 percent that of Vietnam.

Total cargo transport to Ho Chi Minh City’s ports reached 50.5 million metric tonnes, nearly one-third of that in Vietnam.

Other Major Cities:

• Hai Phong
• Da Nang
• Vinh
• Thai Nguyen
• Qui Nhon
• Nha Trang
• Nam Dinh
• My Tho
• Long Xuyen
• Can Tho
• Bien Hoa