Leveraging existing strengths
During the 2018–2025 period, the city implemented the project on “Building Ho Chi Minh City into a Smart City” alongside its Digital Transformation Programme. To date, it has established an initial ecosystem comprising digital infrastructure, data platforms, shared information systems, and numerous sector-specific applications serving state management, public service delivery, and enhanced interaction with citizens and businesses.
A highlight is the development and operation of the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Map, which features more than 200 GIS data layers, supporting land management, urban planning, technical infrastructure, transport, environment, and many other urban sectors. The city currently operates 12 major data centres and is preparing to establish four hyperscale data centres, gradually forming a data infrastructure network for digital government and smart urban development. A citywide shared data repository has also been deployed, enabling connectivity among information systems of departments, agencies, and localities as well as integration with the National Data Integration and Sharing Platform.
Following administrative mergers, Ho Chi Minh City is gradually transitioning to a metropolitan-region model with an expanded, multi-centre and multi-functional development space. This includes central urban areas, satellite cities, industrial and high-tech zones, logistics-port complexes, and inter-regional ecological and service spaces. The city’s population size, natural area, socio-economic infrastructure, and technical infrastructure have all significantly expanded, creating favourable conditions for forming large-scale labour, service, and technology markets.
According to Dinh Hong Ky, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Green Business Association, the biggest challenge at present is not “adding more technology” but “redesigning the governance model for a regional megacity.” Technology is merely a tool; what matters most are mechanisms for regional coordination, mandatory data sharing, and real-time decision-making. Instead of spreading resources too thinly, the city should prioritise three key regional governance issues: inter-regional transport and logistics; flooding, environment, emissions, and climate adaptation; and public services, alongside labour mobility beyond administrative boundaries.
Ky also noted that in the coming phase, Ho Chi Minh City should be planned as a “smart functional triangle” to fully leverage the strengths of the three localities prior to their merger.
More breakthroughs needed
According to the draft project roadmap, in the next two years Ho Chi Minh City will continue to refine platforms and institutions to promote pilot models. This includes establishing a Smart Urban Development Coordination Council, building a shared data repository, and operating sandbox mechanisms for artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twin technologies. In the 2028–2029 period, pilot models will be expanded citywide, alongside the completion of the Smart Urban Monitoring and Operations Centre.
Do Duc Trung, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association, emphasised that to strengthen connections between Government and citizens, development programmes must be measured by tangible outcomes experienced by people and businesses. He added that smart city models must also ensure inclusive technology design that serves vulnerable groups.
Assoc Prof, Dr Thoai Nam, Director of the Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Technology at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Viet Nam National University-Ho Chi Minh City), observed that with the city’s area having tripled, concentrating all data in a single repository would lead to congestion and management difficulties. He proposed adopting a data mesh model with flexible adjustments across sectors. Developing smart ward and commune models is both inevitable and urgent, acting as “living cells” within the ecosystem of a 14-million-strong megacity. Accordingly, central wards should focus on smart services and transport, while communes in industrial or port areas should prioritise digital labour governance and logistics.
The city should also upgrade its existing sandbox mechanism into full-fledged living labs in new urban areas or high-tech zones. Expanding open data laboratories linked to a shared data exchange will enable the startup ecosystem to develop highly accurate “data products” that directly address specific urban challenges. “Specifically, the project should include a strategy to ‘export smart urban solutions,’ packaging governance know-how into technological products for other cities,” Nam suggested.
“It is essential to ensure the principle of ‘one architecture, one data standard, one integration platform, multiple open applications’ to avoid technological lock-in, prevent fragmented investment, and create space for Vietnamese enterprises to participate sustainably,” Ky stressed.
