This information was announced by Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai at the third working session of the 12th Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in Ho Chi Minh City on the morning of October 3.
According to the plan, Ho Chi Minh City will have 8 metro lines and 3 tram or monorail lines, with a total length of about 220 km.
Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) is more than 98% complete after 12 years of construction and is expected to be commercially operational by the end of this year.
Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) is expected to be completed in 2030.
According to the project to develop the urban railway network system in Ho Chi Minh City according to Conclusion 49 of the Politburo, by 2035, Ho Chi Minh City will develop about 183 km of urban railway with a total investment of about 36 billion USD in the next 10 years.
By 2045, Ho Chi Minh City will build an additional 168 km and by 2060, the city's metro system will be completed with a total length of more than 510 km.
To achieve these goals, the city will mobilize maximum resources from the state budget, revenue from urban development, public investment and bond issuance.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that the city will have a mechanism to issue bonds, including urban railway bonds, to mobilize resources from the people. He expressed his hope that the people of Ho Chi Minh City will join hands to contribute to the implementation of these important projects through the purchase of bonds.
“Instead of depositing money in the bank with possibly higher interest rates, buying urban railway bonds may have lower interest rates, but that is how we contribute to the city’s development. I believe that together we will accomplish these great things,” Mr. Phan Van Mai shared.
Previously, speaking at the 31st Ho Chi Minh City Party Executive Committee meeting in June this year, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that when studying foreign experience, the capital for urban railway investment mainly comes from the budget, only a few items have social resources.
For example, in Busan city (Korea), revenue from ticket sales, advertising, and rental costs only accounts for 40-50%, the rest must be compensated by the budget through the mechanism of exploiting land funds along the urban railway line according to the TOD model (urban development associated with the development orientation of the public transport system).
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee analyzed that if 36 billion USD is divided over 10 years, nearly 4 billion USD per year is "not too much", including capital mobilization and debt repayment later. The city does not raise the issue of borrowing ODA but will borrow from the people through urban railway bonds. "Banks affirm that if the interest rate is equal to or higher than the interest rate of government bonds, this amount will be mobilized well" - Mr. Phan Van Mai said.
