Slow disbursement
According to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, by the end of August, the city's total public investment capital had only reached VND14,381 billion, equivalent to 18% of the total allocated capital of VND79,200 billion.
Mr. Tran Quang Lam - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport - said that although the city's leaders have regularly met to resolve problems, the disbursement progress has not had many positive changes.
Many units were warned for the 4th time.
Recently, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued a document reminding many departments, branches, districts and project management units when there were up to 60 petitions related to public investment projects that had expired but had not been processed. Notably, some units continued to be reminded for the third and fourth times because there was still no progress or response after the previous reminders. In particular, the Department of Finance and the Department of Transport along with the People's Committee of District 6 were reminded for the fourth time.
One of the main reasons for the slow disbursement is the adjustment of the 2024 Land Law, which will take effect from August 1, 2024, along with new regulations on how to calculate compensation prices. These changes require projects to adjust their compensation plans, causing delays. A typical example is the project to renovate the North bank of the Doi Canal (District 8), where the resettlement compensation for more than 1,600 households increased from VND 3,583 billion to more than VND 6,000 billion when applying the new land price.
In addition, some projects with large investment capital in Ho Chi Minh City are facing procedural problems and are in the process of coordinating with central ministries and branches to resolve them, so the allocated capital cannot be immediately disbursed, such as: Project to solve flooding caused by tides in Ho Chi Minh City area taking into account climate change factors (phase 1) with a disbursement plan of 6,800 billion VND; Metro project No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) with a total disbursement capital of 3,717 billion VND...
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment, about VND15,899 billion in public investment capital is unlikely to be disbursed in 2024 due to planning and procedural problems.
Sprint together
Mr. Luong Minh Phuc - Director of the HCM City Traffic Construction Investment Management Board - said that the board has been assigned VND12,380 billion but has only disbursed VND2,150 billion (20%). In the remaining months, the board will have to disburse an additional VND9,930 billion, including VND2,000 billion for site clearance, VND700 billion for newly started projects, VND300 billion in ODA capital, etc.
“These funds will be disbursed in the third and fourth quarters and the board is determined to maintain the disbursement target above 95%,” said Mr. Phuc.
Among the solutions, Mr. Phuc said that he is continuing to speed up the construction and installation group. In particular, the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project (about 3,000 billion VND in construction and installation) will receive the first sand package from the West this week. Other large projects are also implementing construction in 3 shifts and 4 teams to ensure progress.
Mr. Phuc also called on localities to quickly hand over the land for important projects such as Tan Binh district (Tran Quoc Hoan road land worth 390 billion VND), District 4 (Nguyen Khoi bridge and road project worth more than 700 billion VND), Binh Chanh district (National Highway 50 expansion project)... These land areas all need to be handed over in September, if they are delayed, it will be too late.
To achieve a disbursement rate of at least 95%, Ho Chi Minh City is implementing many flexible solutions such as transferring capital from slow-disbursing projects to high-disbursing projects. For projects waiting for relevant ministries, branches and agencies to resolve problems, the city will temporarily transfer capital from these projects to arrange for other projects that can be disbursed immediately.
The city continues to shorten the time for handling procedures for public investment projects by 30%; tighten discipline in disbursing public investment capital; and resolutely and strictly handle cases of delay.
According to Mr. Bui Thanh Tan - Director of the HCM City Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board, the board was assigned more than VND 12,400 billion, of which VND 8,400 billion was for site clearance. However, the board has only disbursed VND 920 billion (7.4%).
