Ho Chi Minh City will set up its first special economic zone in the districts of Binh Chanh, 7, 3, Nha Be and Can Gio to focus on developing a sea-borne economy, the Vietnam Net online newspaper reported.

Vo Van Luan, head of the municipal People's Committee Office, said that the city had proposed the Ministry of Investment and Planning allow the establishment of a special economic zone in four districts south of the city to fully tap the potential of the area, so as to help meet the city’s economic development goals.

Chairman of the city People's Committee Le Hoang Quan said the special economic zone is a new model and one of major projects to support the city’s sustainable development for 2016-2020 with a vision toward 2030.

According to the master plan on socio-economic development of the city to 2025, which was approved by the Prime Minister, the local economy will be developed based on a service-industry-agriculture structure, with priority given to finance - banks - credit - insurance, trade, transport, warehousing, port services, postal and telecommunications, information technology - communications, and real estate.

Ho Chi Minh City needs estimated investment capital of nearly 470 billion USD in the next 10 years to implement the above plan.

In the period 2011-2015 the city needs about 1.3-1.4 trillion VND (61.1-65.8 million USD), of which the state budget accounts for 12 percent.

For the 2016-2020 period, it needs from 2,700 to 3,000 trillion VN, with about 10 percent from the budget and 5,000 to 5,600 trillion VND in the period 2021-2025, with 8 percent from the budget.-VNA