On November 14, speaking at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc said that the Rach Chiec National Sports Complex project will start construction on December 19.
"The complex is planned and built modernly, to international standards, with full sports facilities. In 5 years, the city will have a complex capable of organizing international and regional sports events" - Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc said.
Recently, Ho Chi Minh City has called for investment in component projects at the Rach Chiec National Sports Complex under the PPP (public-private partnership) form.
Notably, the 50,000-seat stadium project, integrated with an athletics track, with an investment capital of 7,000 billion VND.
The project of a basin bicycle racing house, integrating a motorbike racing track combined with an outdoor soccer field has an investment of 4,000 billion VND.
Other projects include: Football Academy and cluster of 6 outdoor soccer practice courts (1,000 billion VND); track and field competition for athletics (1,500 billion VND)...
The Rach Chiec National Sports Complex was proposed for investment in 1994 with an initial planning area of 466 hectares and is expected to become an Olympic-standard sports center.
However, the current area is only 212 hectares after many adjustments and the project has not yet progressed, this area is still just empty plots of land mixed with mud.
In 2017, Ho Chi Minh City restarted the project to prepare for the 31st SEA Games, but after the city withdrew from the hosting role, the project was stalled again.
In December 2023, applying Resolution 98, Ho Chi Minh City included the Rach Chiec National Sports Complex in the list of cultural and sports projects invested in the form of public-private partnership (PPP), opening up opportunities to revive the project.
On the morning of November 14, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council agreed to stop the investment policy for the compensation and site clearance project of the Rach Chiec National Sports Complex to comply with the new investment form.
This project was approved in March 2018 with a total capital of more than VND 8,000 billion, but is still at the preparation stage and has used nearly VND 1.4 billion for surveying and measuring. After reviewing, the total investment of the project increased to more than VND 18,800 billion.
According to the Law on Public Investment, it is not allowed to implement compensation and site clearance projects independently, but the investment policy needs to include construction and installation projects. This will increase pressure on the city budget and is not suitable for the current context.
Currently, some investors are interested in implementing projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) method, in line with the orientation of attracting private capital. According to the PPP Law, to prepare a project proposal, the project must not overlap with the project with an investment policy decision.
The suspension of the investment policy using budget capital not only ensures compliance with the law but also creates a legal basis for Ho Chi Minh City to call for investors, mobilize socialized resources, reduce budget pressure and promote the progress of the Rach Chiec National Sports Complex project.
