Vietnam's HCM City ranks on top 20 "dynamic" global list

Vietnam's southern economic hub Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City has been ranked among the 20 most dynamic cities globally by the U.S.-based financial and professional services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), local media reported Thursday.

The firm revealed the list through its City Momentum Index (CMI) paper in late January. This is JLL's second annual CMI, which captures the dynamics of a city's real estate market -- its rates of construction and absorption, price movement and the attraction of a city's built environment for cross-border capital.

The CMI selected HCM City as one among six new cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, to figure in the top 20. The city' s construction levels are high, although growth rates are exaggerated by the small size of the existing commercial real estate market, according to Vietnam News daily report.

In 2014, HCM City achieved Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 9.6 percent, 1.7 times higher than the country's average.

The city received a total of 4.4 million foreign visitors last year, accounting for 53 percent of the number of foreign visitors to Vietnam. It targeted 4.7 million foreign visitors and 19.3 million local tourists this year, which would bring an estimated total revenue of 98.26 trillion VND (4.57 billion U.S. dollars), said the report.