Monday, September 26, 2011

Moving to Ho Chi Minh City

Today we look at moving to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam from San Francisco in USA. We highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced in our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations

In Ho Chi Minh City people speak Vietnamese. In San Francisco people speak English.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is the largest city in Vietnam. San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States. The economy of Ho Chi Minh City covers different fields, from mining, seafood processing, agriculture, construction to tourism, finance, industry, trading. It is regarded as the economic center in Vietnam as it accounts for a high proportion of Vietnam's economy. Tourism is the backbone of the San Francisco economy. Its frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. San Francisco's economy has increasingly become tied to that of its Bay Area neighbor San Jose and Silicon Valley to its south, sharing the need for highly educated workers with specialized skills.

The overall cost of living rank in Ho Chi Minh City is 278 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with low cost of living locations.  An expatriate moving from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City will experience a change in cost of living of -30.6%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Ho Chi Minh City is ranked as a high degree of hardship location with a hardship index of 30% compared to San Francisco with a hardship index of 10% which is a minimal hardship location.

Source: Ho Chi Minh City Cost of Living as at July 2011.

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