Municipal Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan said at a Thursday meeting the city would make every efforts to turn itself into a smart city by 2025.

But Mr. Nhan acknowledged that in the next five to ten years the country and the world would have undergo changes that could affect the city’s development plans. As Vietnam’s commercial hub and biggest moneymaker, the city's gross regional domestic product growth reached 7.86 percent last year while the country’s GDP expanded by 7.02 percent.

The government has recently agreed with the city's plan to turn its three eastern Districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc into an "innovative urban area".