Abstract

In 2020, Vietnam will celebrate 45 years of unification between North and South Vietnam. Although Saigon lost central government status as a capital city in 1975, it remains Vietnam’s financial capital and prime economic hub (Fan et al. 2019). Renamed Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in 1976, over the last few decades, HCMC has made remarkable progress in urbanization as a result of market economic reform policies. Throughout history, it has been a primary destination for rural people coming from all over Vietnam to study, live and work, and this trend has steadily accelerated since the 1980s. As a consequence of this migration, and the accompanying industrialization of HCMC’s economy, the city also faces substantial growth problems, such as poor housing conditions, inadequate infrastructure and environmental degradation (Nguyen et al. 2016).