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| Metro cars imported to serve Metro line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) |
Slow disbursement due to many reasons
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council assigned a public investment capital plan of nearly 32 trillion VND in 2022. However, by the end of July, the city has only disbursed about 26% of the estimate. For projects using official development assistance (ODA), disbursement has only reached 8% in the first seven months of 2022.
According to the monitoring results of the People’s Council, by the end of July 2022, the city has about 100 projects that have not been disbursed, 12 projects have only disbursed less than 10%. Projects with 0% disbursement rate include: Ho Chi Minh City green traffic development; improving the city’s water environment in the basin of Tau Hu - Ben Nghe Canal and Doi - Te Canal (in the second phase); and compensation and support for resettlement of urban railway line No. 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong).
Underpass at the intersection of Nguyen Van Linh - Nguyen Huu Tho in District 7 is among projects with slow disbursement. The project has been allocated public investment capital of 150 billion VND, but so far, only 12 billion VND has been disbursed, equivalent to 8%.
According to the HCM City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board, in addition to the above project, this unit is also allocated 6 trillion VND in 2022 by the People’s Committee for other projects, but only disbursed 1.5 trillion VND.
Efforts to achieve the goal
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Development Research Institute, normally in the first months of the year, the disbursement rate of public investment capital is slow due to the influence of administrative procedures. However, in the last months of the year, the disbursement rate will be faster because the basic procedures are completed.
Aiming to promote disbursement of public investment capital, the City People’s Committee has established 3 working groups including: Working group on site clearance to implement projects; working group to review projects with large capital allocation but slow disbursement; and working group to review difficulties and problems related to projects using ODA capital and foreign concessional loans.
Director of the City Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai affirmed that the city will review the allocation of capital plans for projects in line with the schedule, proactively transferring the capital plan in 2022 to arrange for projects with high disbursement capacity.
The city also requires investors to develop plans for projects that are qualified for allocating capital, has a clear schedule and closely follows the schedule. Along with that, the 3 working groups will focus on solving problems and difficulties, speeding up progress for each field and project, and striving to achieve the goal of disbursing public investment capital in 2022 by 95% or more.
At a recent meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the City People’s Committee proposed that the Prime Minister direct ministries and branches to focus on solving problems related to the city’s key public investment projects such as the metro line 1 or Ben Thanh -Suoi Tien, the metro line 2 or Ben Thanh-Tham Luong.
Chairman of the City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai emphasized that public investment leads social investment, and slow disbursement will affect the overall development of the city. The City People’s Committee has asked leaders of agencies and units to strengthen discipline and improve the sense of responsibility, striving to achieve a disbursement rate of 95% this year./.