Hong Kong, a well-established international financial centre, can offer valuable lessons for Ho Chi Minh City to develop its own IFC, an official of Vietnam's southern economic powerhouse says.

Ho Chi Minh City ( HCMC ) is responsible for a quarter of Vietnam’s state budget and one-fifth of the Southeast Asian nation’s GDP. By September 15, when the two neighbouring provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria – Vung Tau are completely incorporated into HCMC, the new metropolitan region will contribute a quarter of Vietnam’s GDP, with the regional population increasing by 50% to 15 million from 10 million at present.

The megacity is pursuing plans to establish an international financial centre, an ambition that may open up several business and investment opportunities. It wants to explore Hong Kong’s experiences in building a well-established IFC, vice mayor Nguyen Van Dung told the HCMC and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Investment & Business Forum 2025 in HCMC on June 12.

“Hong Kong's development process, especially in the extensive application of green finance towards a sustainable green financial centre, can offer valuable lessons for Ho Chi Minh City at present,” Nguyen says.

Deepening ties

The Vietnamese economic hub is eager to deepen ties with Greater Bay Area partners, including companies and enterprises, notably in infrastructure, a main sector expected to boost the development of the new metropolis.

“The comprehensive development model from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau can serve as a useful ideal for Ho Chi Minh City in promoting regional connectivity and expanding its development space,” he says.

“In addition to infrastructure, the city also hopes to strengthen ‘soft connectivity’ with the Greater Bay Area through digital transformation partnerships, focusing on sharing AI technology in urban management, building a big data ecosystem, and implementing a cross-border payment Fintech platform.”

The Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s rice bowl, and HCMC are supplying many kinds of food to China, especially the Greater Bay Area.

Therefore, the two sides need to further promote cooperation in developing food processing by optimizing the transportation of agricultural products, enhancing trade, and sharing state-of-the-art processing technology to help HCMC businesses access the Greater Bay Area market more effectively, says the vice mayor.

Business mission

The event was jointly organized by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore, the GBA Alliance, and the Hong Kong-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce. The HCMC Investment and Trade Promotion Center was the local organizer.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area encompasses 11 cities – Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong province, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing.

A business mission including 50 executives from GBA companies, led by Jonathan Choi, chairman of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Sunwah Group and chair of the GBA Alliance, attended the June 12 business and investment forum in HCMC. They also included Jesse Choi, CEO of Sunwah Asean and chair of GBA Alliance in Vietnam, and Jason Choi, vice chair of GBA Alliance and CEO of Sunwah in GBA.

Choi says he believes GBA will continue to serve as an effective link between China and Vietnam in many areas like trade, innovation, technology transfer, and sustainable development investment.

The GBA cities are open-minded and dynamic, while HCMC and Vietnam as a whole are in pursuit of deeper international integration. This will create increasingly practical and sustainable cooperation opportunities, he says.

The Hong Kong tycoon also serves as chairman of HCMC-headquartered VinaCapital with around US$4 billion in assets under management. His Sunwah Group has so far invested around US$5 billion in Vietnam, which he describes as his “second homeland”.