The information is stated in the official dispatch that the Department of Finance has just sent to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, after appraisal the submission of the Management Board of Investment and Construction Projects for Civil and Industrial Works (investor of the Ho Chi Minh City Planning Exhibition Center project).
Previously, the investor proposed to add a package worth nearly 491 million VND to survey and evaluate the overall status of the project, and at the same time make a detailed estimate for items that need to be repaired or replaced due to damage after a long period of stagnation.
After appraisal, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance said that the addition of this package does not increase the total investment of the project and is in accordance with current regulations. On that basis, the Department of Finance recommended that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee consider and approve the additional bidding package according to the investor's proposal.
The Ho Chi Minh City Planning Exhibition Center project was built in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area (old Thu Duc City), with a scale of 5 floors, with a total investment of more than 836 billion VND.
The project has a unique architecture of two teams leaning against each other, using many steel structures to create triangles, and is expected to become a public project with a symbolic status of the area.
The building has the function of displaying and exhibiting urban architectural plans, and is also a place to organize events and exchange between experts, people and tourists.
The project started in 2015 with the City Planning Exhibition Center Construction Project Management Board as the investor, including 49 packages, including 18 construction packages, equipment signed in the form of a complete package, without a general contractor.
By 2018, the project had completed the rough construction and begun the equipment installation phase. However, since June 2018, the project has had to temporarily stop construction due to problems in the XL6 package (production and installation of outside covering items such as glass walls, facades, support frames, railings, ceilings and metal decorative panels). The reason is that the contractor did not perform in accordance with the signed contract, affecting the entire progress of the related packages because there was no construction site.
In March 2024, after the project was transferred to a new investor, the Project Management Board for Investment and Construction of Civil and Industrial Works, the contract with the contractor of package XL6 was officially terminated. The investor has replaced it with a new construction unit to gradually restart the project.
However, according to the investor's report, the "shelving" of many years has caused many items and equipment of the project to seriously deteriorate, requiring careful inspection to have a basis for repair or replacement.
In addition, some equipment of the packages, although imported to the construction site before, has not been installed yet, and the manufacturer's warranty period has now expired, and the quality needs to be re-evaluated.
In October 2024, the investor proposed that the total cost arising in 16 packages of the project was nearly 77 billion VND.
However, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction believes that this number does not have enough basis to consider. The reason is that the accurate determination of the repair and replacement value of damaged items requires an independent consulting unit to conduct surveys, assessments and make detailed estimates.
