Autumn Economic Forum 2025: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends CEO 500-TEA CONNECT event
WVR - On the afternoon of November 25, at Thisky Hall, within the framework of the Autumn Economic Forum 2025, the CEO 500 - TEA CONNECT event took place with the theme “Ho Chi Minh City: Moving towards an international mega-city in the digital era”. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and delivered a speech.
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Attending the program were Mr. Tran Luu Quang, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee; Mr. Bui Thanh Son, Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister; Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, Member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee; along with representatives of central ministries and agencies; leaders of the city government and departments; experts; representatives of international organizations, international localities, the business community with investment capital in the city, and media agencies both domestic and international.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivering a directive speech. (Source: Organizing Board) |
In his directive speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that Ho Chi Minh City is facing a golden opportunity to break through, not only for the well-being of over 14 million city residents but also for the prosperity of the Southeast region and the entire country.
Referring to Resolution 31-NQ/TW of the Politburo on building a civilized, modern, and compassionate Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on tasks such as digital economy development, growth model innovation, improving quality of life, ensuring national defense and security, and building a clean and strong Party and political system; Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pointed out that this is the guiding principle for the government and the city to focus on in the coming period.
Accordingly, the government will accompany Ho Chi Minh City in implementing key resolutions, quickly transforming perspectives into mechanisms, policies, and projects in the city: promoting science-technology and digital transformation; proactively integrating internationally; boosting the private economy; and piloting legal mechanisms to meet development needs.
The government also commits to accompanying and creating the best conditions for Ho Chi Minh City in its development process, through specific issues such as: perfecting the institutional framework, granting more autonomy to the city in management and resource mobilization; investing in strategic infrastructure, especially green infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and inter-regional connectivity; developing high-quality human resources, enhancing public and enterprise governance capacity; promoting green finance, innovation, technology transfer; creating a favorable, transparent, and stable environment for domestic and foreign enterprises to invest long-term.
“I believe that with a strong aspiration to rise, a spirit of solidarity, creativity, and decisive action, Ho Chi Minh City will continue to affirm its leading position, becoming a dynamic international mega-city, a livable place, and the pride of the nation,” Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated clearly.
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| Mr. Tran Luu Quang, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, speaking. (Source: Organizing Board) |
Speaking at the event, Mr. Tran Luu Quang, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, emphasized that emerging technology waves are fundamentally changing production and management methods. This is an opportunity for Ho Chi Minh City to restructure its industry towards being green, smart, and high value-added; while also setting requirements for businesses to enhance productivity, sustainability, and competitiveness, striving to contribute to achieving the dual transformation goal for the city and the nation.
Particularly, in the context of Ho Chi Minh City focusing on building an international financial center, Mr. Tran Luu Quang stated that the city's top priority is to create the most favorable conditions and attractive incentives for investors. The formation of a modern, transparent, and integrated financial center will expand access to capital markets and high-quality financial services, thereby reassuring investors to implement projects and expand operations in the city.
“Ho Chi Minh City is well aware that to reach the stature of an international mega-city in Southeast Asia, we need the companionship of the international community, the sharing of experts, and the cooperation of businesses both domestically and internationally,” the Party Secretary affirmed; also expressing confidence that with intelligence, experience, and shared aspirations, the connection program between Vietnamese leaders, Ho Chi Minh City, and business leaders today will spark many ideas, solutions, and breakthrough initiatives, making practical contributions to the development vision, bringing the city closer to the goal of becoming a smart, dynamic, sustainable, and humane mega-city.
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| The tea offering ceremony by tea masters to the delegates. (Source: Organizing Board) |
Additionally, one of the highlights in the opening of CEO 500 – TEA CONNECT was the integration of Vietnamese cultural identity into the business connection space. The program began with an artistic performance “Vietnamese Tea - the scent of the earth, the color of the sky, and the soul of the Vietnamese people”, combined with a tea offering ceremony by tea masters to the delegates.
Moreover, two presentations by the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance provided a comprehensive picture of strategic direction and development space for the 2026–2030 period, with a vision to 2045, along with key projects being and to be implemented, playing a crucial role in the city's growth structure. These data, analyses, and orientations are expected to create a “common coordinate” for the business community to dialogue, thereby forming practical cooperation initiatives, suitable to the development needs and potential of each sector.
Notably, the CEO 500 - TEA CONNECT dialogue session – an open forum for the business community, lasting 95 minutes with the theme “Ho Chi Minh City: Towards an international mega-city in the digital era”, chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang, and Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc, was also highly appreciated. The dialogue session featured over 20 presentations from international organizations and global corporations such as Foxconn Industrial Internet (Fii), Qualcomm, Siemens, Amazon, along with many prominent Vietnamese enterprises like Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Techcombank...
The discussion focused on practical issues of interest to businesses in the context of Ho Chi Minh City repositioning its role as a “dynamic mega-city” such as: Cooperation in digital transformation – green transformation; the need for new digital and strategic infrastructure; international financial center and attracting high-quality capital flows; building an innovation ecosystem, developing high-level human resources, especially in AI and digital technology, as well as exploiting the potential of public-private partnerships (PPP) in strategic projects.
This was an open and highly substantive dialogue session, allowing businesses to directly express needs, propose initiatives, and share international experiences.
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| Overview of the program. (Source: Organizing Board) |
Within the program's framework, a series of cooperation activities between city agencies and businesses, organizations were also announced, demonstrating a commitment to accompany and concretize the contents exchanged at the event. Additionally, the announcement ceremony of cooperation activities between departments, Vietnamese enterprises, and international partners also took place under the witness of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and city leaders.
The participation of leading global corporations and institutions demonstrates the special attraction of the Autumn Economic Forum 2025, as well as the increasingly high position of Ho Chi Minh City in the global economic – technology cooperation network. Each unit brings core strengths, while clearly expressing expectations for new cooperation opportunities in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City.
It can be said that CEO 500 – TEA CONNECT is not just a regular meeting but is shaped as a global strategic dialogue space. The tea culture here becomes a powerful catalyst, promoting a shared vision and long-term cooperation spirit between leaders and experts, businesses domestically and internationally, contributing to creating an international cooperation bridge for sustainable development. At the same time, the event opens up great opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to participate more deeply in regional and global supply chains, access capital flows, technology, knowledge, and advanced management models, thereby enhancing competitiveness and international integration capability. Moreover, this is an occasion to propose breakthrough initiatives, policies suitable to the new development context of Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City in the era of building a digital mega-city post-merger.
With a pioneering spirit and aspiration to create new value for the business community, CEO 500 continues to affirm its strategic spearhead role in connecting knowledge, promoting international cooperation, and accompanying the green - digital - sustainable transformation process of Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general.
| Established in 2023, CEO 100 - TEA CONNECT is a business meeting event through tea gatherings, first organized within the framework of the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum. The event created a special resonance, being evaluated by the press as a new initiative in international-level external affairs. With the goal of connecting about 100 domestic and international CEOs through the hallmark of Vietnamese tea culture, CEO 100 has affirmed its role as an effective connection model, creating a solid foundation for cooperation and development. At the Autumn Economic Forum 2025, the program was officially upgraded to CEO 500 – TEA CONNECT. Not only expanding in scale (from 100 to 500 delegates), under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the event was also elevated in position and influence, gathering a large number of experts, policymakers, the business community, and leaders from various sectors both domestically and internationally... This is a strategic transition, affirming Vietnam's determination to create a high-level dialogue space between the state and businesses for the long-term and sustainable development of the economy. |
