Ho Chi Minh City emerges as a global megacity

This marks the World Bank’s first budgetary support for a sub-national entity in Vietnam, demonstrating a strategic shift in the Bank’s engagement at the sub-national level from sector-specific investments to supporting cross-cutting policy and institutional reforms. The policy program is designed to institute integrated cross-sector reforms in areas that are crucial for HCMC’s urban development including land use planning, fiscal governance, wastewater management, public transport, and economic competitiveness. The policy program aims to remove institutional bottlenecks to enable Vietnam’s largest city and economic powerhouse to address some of its most pressing urban governance challenges.