Mai said the resolution will open up great opportunities for the city to make a breakthrough in developing an economy based on science and technology.

HCM City, a hub of science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, has made big investments and achieved great results in these fields.

The city will focus on reviewing investments to have a better service infrastructure system. At the same time, it will pay attention to training human resources specializing in science and technology management and general resources for society, Mai said. 

Based on the foundation of the National Assembly’s Resolution 98 (a specific resolution for the development of HCM City), the city will deploy Resolution 57 to mobilize all possible resources with an aim of improving manpower, financial capability, and other conditions to make groundbreaking growth.

The city is planning to support enterprises in establishing laboratories and research facilities to serve both businesses and research and training activities. For universities and research institutes, HCM City will offer attractive investment mechanisms (preferential interest rates, syndicated loans, full funding) to develop infrastructure for science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

Regarding human resource policies, Mai said the city will give support in manpower training for digital transformation, science, and technology, as well as expenditures to attend international conferences and participate in research projects.

Under Resolution 57, Vietnam’s expenditures on research and development is up to 2 percent of GDP, with over 60 percent coming from societal contributions. At least 3 percent of the country’s total expenditures will be spent on science and technology development, innovation and digital transformation.

After the enactment of Resolution 57, HCM City organized two workshops to collect suggestions from experts and scientists to identify priority tasks, to be mentioned in the action plan. 

“The plan will be released by municipal authorities in February at the latest,” Mai stated.

HCM City leadership said that in 2025 and the following years, Resolution 57 will be implemented more vigorously and comprehensively to serve as a driving force for the city's economic breakthroughs. 

Online administrative procedures 

Reviewing the city’s development in 2024, Mai noted that the city gained positive achievements in all three pillars of the digital transformation – digital government, digital economy and digital society.

Mai highlighted the city’s intention to leverage its position as a leading center for scientific and technological advancement, ensuring that investments in innovation and digital transformation directly contribute to boosting economic development.

Asked about the goals for 2025, Mai said the city is striving to have at least 80 percent of administrative procedures to be implemented online. Applications like Digital Citizen will be a two-way interaction channel between people, businesses and the government.

According to Mai, through this two-way interaction, the city government will adjust its operations to better serve the needs of its citizens and businesses.

He said the municipal authorities will focus on strongly supporting businesses in their digital transformation efforts. This involves identifying key areas for budgetary investment and creating policies and mechanisms for implementation. 

The city is considering policies to support enterprises that want to digitize and develop science and technology. These enterprises can receive 30-50 percent or even 100 percent of financial support.

Additionally, the city is considering giving support to shared applications and workforce training for businesses engaging in digital transformation and innovation.

The city will focus on supporting large businesses and IT companies to create a ‘nucleus’ of digital transformation. IT companies will participate both as service providers and innovators themselves.

These steps, according to Mai, will be taken to increase the proportion of the digital economy in the national economy to 25 percent by 2025 and 40 percent by 2030.

For digital society, the city plans to focus on IT and telecommunications infrastructure, and introduce applications to help citizens’ and businesses’ access services such as healthcare, education, employment, and social welfare.

Commenting about Resolution 57, Dr Cu Van Trung, an expert in political science, said the document provides widespread political patronage for science and technology development.

Ho Van