The HCM City People’s Committee has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Imex Pan Pacific Group for a feasibility study for building the Viet Nam International Financial Hub.

The company will also connect with foreign investors and funds, hire US consultants for the study and hand it over to the city within 60 days.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Chairman of the city People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said the project would make the city an international financial hub.

With its conducive business environment and rapid and steady economic growth, HCM City meets all the conditions needed to become a global financial centre, he said.

Jonathan Hanh Nguyen, chairman of IPP Group, said since 2016 the group has been proposing to build an international financial centre in HCM City, and since now the pandemic is basically under control in the country and the vaccination rate is very high, the Viet Nam International Financial Hub is an idea whose time has come.

HCM City contributes 22.3 per cent to the country’s GDP and 27 per cent to the Government’s revenues, and attracts more than a third of the country's FDI.

It has excellent financial infrastructure with numerous banks, financial intermediaries, investment funds, and financial firms that play a vital role in attracting and distributing capital.

Mai said the COVID-19 pandemic had hugely impacted the plan process and so it is the appropriate time to speed up and complete it. — VNS