The misuse of urban planning in Ho Chi Minh City

•This research examines the roles of urban planning in Ho Chi Minh City.•The paper applies a narrative methodology to show rationales and to support main findings.•Urban planning with its conventional role has failed in Ho Chi Minh City.•Urban planning has acted as a “facilitation device” to help govern the city.

There are two main findings in this research. First, urban planning has failed to shape urban development in Ho Chi Minh City. As in many cities in the region in their early development stages, planning has had less influence in shaping urban development than market forces. Second, while urban planning has not been successful in fulfilling its conventional role, it has been successful in serving as a “facilitation device” for the city's government to: 1) negotiate with the central government to achieve greater fiscal and policy autonomy; 2) seek international donors' financial and technical assistance; and 3) encourage private businesses to participate in building the city. In the circumstances of Vietnam – a country in the process of decentralization—the facilitation role of urban planning has no doubt been helpful to the municipal government in its efforts to mobilize resources for its a few megaprojects and programs. Since some megaprojects and programs have been wasteful, the facilitation role constitutes a misuse of urban planning and should be abandoned. Instead the municipal government should confine its use of urban planning to that for which it is intended—namely shaping urban development in ways that serve social (as well as market determined) purposes. This is what has been absent in Ho Chi Minh City and what needs to be restored to put urban development on a better footing.