On the afternoon of December 10, at the 20th session of the 10th term Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai answered questions about the progress and solutions to remove obstacles of the nearly 10,000 billion VND flood prevention project.
At the question-and-answer session, delegate Nguyen Minh Nhut emphasized voters' interest in the largest flood prevention project in Ho Chi Minh City, and at the same time requested city leaders to clarify solutions to problems and completion timeline.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai admitted that this project has become a typical example of prolongation and waste, attracting special attention from central leaders.
The Prime Minister has asked Ho Chi Minh City to closely coordinate with ministries and branches to remove obstacles and ensure the project is completed in 2025.
According to Mr. Phan Van Mai, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has proposed that the Prime Minister resolve three main groups of issues to speed up progress.
Adjustment of total investment: Project extension leads to changes in total investment, making it impossible to sign contract appendixes with investors and make contract payments.
Ho Chi Minh City proposed the Prime Minister to allow project adjustment according to regulations to create legal conditions to complete necessary procedures.
Recapitalization and reduction of interest costs: Ho Chi Minh City proposed that the Prime Minister direct the State Bank of Vietnam and BIDV to extend the recapitalization period with preferential interest rates to reduce financial pressure. At the same time, the city also proposed to restructure the debt repayment plan of investors and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
Contract payment: The project uses two payment sources: land fund and city budget.
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has allocated VND6,800 billion for 2024, but the disbursement cannot be implemented immediately. Regarding land funds, three locations have been identified, of which two land plots are subject to the provisions of the Land Law and one public land plot is subject to Resolution 98. The city has proposed to the Prime Minister to allow the valuation and use of these land funds to pay for contracts.
According to Mr. Phan Van Mai, the project has completed 90% of the work, of which more than 3,000 billion VND has been audited.
Ho Chi Minh City proposed to pay in advance for this volume so that the investor has financial resources to complete the remaining part (about 1,800 billion VND) and partially repay the debt to BIDV.
Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized that if the Government approves the recommendations in December 2024, the investor can complete the project within 12 months, expected to be put into use by the end of 2025.
The flood control project due to high tides has a total investment of nearly 10,000 billion VND, started in 2016 with the goal of controlling flooding for 570 km², serving about 6.5 million people in the central areas and along the Saigon River.
Although more than 90% of the project has been completed, the project still faces many legal problems, leading to the suspension of construction since November 2020.
This has resulted in large costs, including more than 1.7 billion VND in daily interest alone. Through calculations, interest and other costs have increased the total investment of the project to more than 14,000 billion VND (according to the expected completion schedule by the end of 2025).
