Ho Chi Minh City will build a special economic zone encompassing districts 7, Nha Be, Binh Chanh and Can Gio in order to fully tap the southern economic hub’s potential and advantages for further development. Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said the economic zone is intended to create breakthroughs in production, export and import activities, thus luring more investments in the city. In order to implement the project, which he said is of special significance to the city’s development, Quan asked the project building team to focus on analysing its role, objective and scale, given the context of Vietnam’s intensive and extensive international integration. It is essential to concretise prioritised sectors that could serve as catalysts for the economic zone, he said, asking the team to propose development models and capital mobilisation for the project. The official assigned the Ho Chi Minh Institute for Development Studies to verify mechanisms and policies regarding the special economic zone model and study lessons at home and abroad in implementing the model, then selecting the most suitable and feasible option. The Department of Planning and Investment has been tasked with reviewing all plans currently being carried out in the targeted area and study the zone’s strength in relations with the Hiep Phuoc Port Urban Area and the Phu My Hung Urban Area plans.-VNA