UOB Vietnam, under Singaporean lender UOB, has started construction of its UOB Plaza Ho Chi Minh City, a $450 million tower located within Vietnam’s International Financial Center (VIFC), making UOB the first foreign financial institution to invest in headquarters within the VIFC-HCMC precinct.

At the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, HCMC People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc highlighted the UOB Plaza can serve not only as UOB’s new headquarters in Vietnam, but also as a financial, commercial, and investment connection point between Vietnam and the region.

Wee Ee Cheong, UOB Deputy Chairman and Group CEO, said UOB has branches across 19 countries and that the new headquarters reflects the bank’s confidence in Vietnam’s development prospects and its alignment with HCMC’s ambition to become an international financial center.

The project is expected to be completed in 2030 and marks a new milestone in UOB’s long-term development strategy in Vietnam, which the bank has identified as a priority market in ASEAN.

HCMCM expects the international financial center can serve as the base for global investment funds, investment banks, asset management companies, and financial technology centers that can direct long-term capital into Vietnam’s strategic infrastructure, renewable energy, and high-technology sectors.

The groundbreaking comes as Ho Chi Minh City intensifies its push to develop the VIFC-HCMC as a strategic tool for attracting a new generation of foreign direct investment (FDI). The city currently hosts 20,259 FDI projects with total capital of nearly $142 billion from 152 countries and territories.

In the first half of 2026, the city attracted more than $6.8 billion in FDI, reaching 62 percent of its annual target. The FDI sector accounts for approximately 20 percent of total social investment capital and more than 50 percent of export turnover.

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