Ho Chi Minh City Courts Global Tech Investment at WEF Dalian Summit

Ho Chi Minh City is seeking to "co-create" new growth drivers with global partners rather than simply attracting investment projects, a senior official stated during a recent economic summit. A delegation led by Nguyen Loc Ha, Permanent Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, attended the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum (WEF AMNC 2026) in Dalian, China, from June 22 to 26.

In a speech at the forum, Mr. Ha outlined the city's ambition to establish a strategic dialogue axis connecting the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, the AMNC in China, and Ho Chi Minh City's own annual Autumn Economic Forum. This initiative, according to the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC C4IR), aims to elevate the role of major metropolitan areas and their business communities, positioning them as new growth poles in the global economy.

Alongside official forum activities, the delegation hosted investment promotion programs. A city-chaired event series, "Collaboration Days," attracted nearly 1,000 delegates and saw the announcement of nine cooperation agreements. These partnerships underscore the city's development orientation toward science, technology, and innovation. New collaborations were established with corporations including Sunwah, Exabyte, Inspur Smart Technology, and TOJOY to deploy models for smart cities, green materials, robotics, and automation.

Side events at the summit also focused on high-tech agricultural development and strengthening cross-border value chains. HCMC C4IR reported that several Agricultural Technology (Agritech) models were introduced for potential application in the city. These included Israel’s National Climate Technology Program, Fermata’s computer vision solutions for crop monitoring, a South Korean AI-driven food logistics management system, and the Liao Yu Group’s ocean circular economy model. The solutions will be evaluated for the city’s "Large-scale High-tech Urban Agriculture" project.