Ho Chi Minh City Transport and Land Use

Abstract

In March 2008 the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City approved a revised master plan designed to guide the development of the city through the year 2025. Ho Chi Minh City, often abbreviated as HCMC, was Vietnam’s commercial capital, with a population nearly twice as large as Hanoi, Vietnam’s political capital. Vietnam’s economy had been growing at rates of 6 to 8 percent per year for nearly two decades, and much of that growth was located in its cities, and in HCMC in particular .Real estate prices were at all time highs, and development pressures threatened the historic French colonial core of the city and the wetlands to the west and southeast. Traffic congestion was growing rapidly as HCMC was registering 1300 new motorcycles and 150 new cars per day. The city, whichthe French had christened “the Pearl of the Orient” was now referred to by some as “the motorcycle capital of the world.”