On the morning of June 13, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and the Government's working delegation worked with the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee.
Concluding the working session, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung said that Ho Chi Minh City still has many backlog projects that have been prolonged and have not been completely resolved.
For example, the nearly 10,000 billion VND tidal flood control project, the Prime Minister requested to clarify what the overall solution of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is; now what obstacles the project still has that are under the jurisdiction of the City Party Committee, the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee or the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister requested that even issues that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is still concerned about need to be reported so that the Government and the city and relevant ministries and sectors can find a definitive solution.
The Prime Minister said that he had agreed with Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Tran Luu Quang on the goal of completing the tide prevention project this year, regardless of the reason.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee must direct the thorough handling. Any problems under the central authority, especially related to BIDV, the Government will have appropriate solutions to create conditions for the city. However, issues under the authority of Ho Chi Minh City must be proactively resolved by the city to resolve investors' recommendations" - the Prime Minister emphasized.
According to Prime Minister Le Minh Hung, the mechanism for handling difficult and problematic projects is basically complete. The Politburo has issued Conclusion No. 24, the National Assembly has Resolution No. 29 and the Government has also issued a decree for implementation. Therefore, the current issue is no longer the mechanism but the organization of implementation.
The tidal flood control project of Ho Chi Minh City was started in 2016 in the form of BT (build - transfer), with a total investment of nearly 10,000 billion VND.
By November 2020, the construction volume reached more than 90% but had to be temporarily suspended due to many legal obstacles and procedures for payment of land funds to investors.
After many years of stagnation, in July 2025, the Government issued Resolution No. 212/NQ-CP to remove the prolonged difficulties of the project.
In early February 2026, the project will be restarted and is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2026.
However, investors still cannot access credit capital to implement the remaining items because many procedures related to payment have not been completed.
The most urgent requirement currently is for the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to soon sign an appendix to the BT contract to update the adjusted total investment and determine the land areas used to pay for the project. This is the basis for BIDV to calculate revenue sources and develop a plan to continue disbursing the remaining capital.
While waiting for procedures to be resolved, the project still has to bear a very large loan interest rate. Currently, BIDV is applying a penalty interest rate of 5.5%/year for the project's loan. The total incurred loan interest costs to date have reached about 2,500 billion VND.
Recently, Trung Nam Construction Investment Joint Stock Company (Trungnam Group) - the project investor - sent a document to Ho Chi Minh City leaders warning that if the current problems are not resolved soon, the project will hardly be completed on schedule in 2026. The completion progress of the project will have to be postponed corresponding to the delay in resolving dossiers.
To remove difficulties, Trungnam Group proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approve the replacement of two payment land plots at 299 Dao Tri and a 4.2 ha land plot in Phuoc Long ward with two other land plots at 257 Tran Hung Dao (Cau Ong Lanh ward) and 79B Ly Thuong Kiet (Tan Hoa ward), ensuring the principle of equal price according to the State Audit's proposal.
The business also proposed that Ho Chi Minh City soon sign a BT contract appendix in June to complete legal documents with BIDV, creating conditions to access capital sources to serve the completion of the project.
