On August 1, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc chaired a meeting with relevant departments and branches to implement the Government's Resolution 212 on removing difficulties and obstacles for the Ho Chi Minh City tidal Flood Control Project, taking into account climate change factors (phase 1) - a project with a total investment of nearly 10,000 billion VND, which has been stalled for more than 5 years.
At the meeting, a representative of the Department of Finance said that they will coordinate with investors and BIDV Bank to review the interest costs arising in the process of adjusting the total investment.
This will be completed before August 15 to eliminate unreasonable costs according to the Government's direction, as a basis for investors to have documents proposing to BIDV to reduce project lending interest rates.
At the same time, the Department of Finance will coordinate with relevant agencies to advise the City People's Committee to send a document to the State Bank, recommending removing difficulties in refinancing and disbursing loans.
The investor - Trung Nam Construction Investment Joint Stock Company - proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee support access to other loan sources to complete two important items: Ben Nghe culvert (expected to be completed in October 2025) and Muong Chuoi culvert (expected to be completed in December 2025).
Regarding the issue of land fund payment under the form of BT (build - transfer) contracts, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City will complete the selection of a unit for appraisal prices and determination of the value of land use rights before September 15 to advise the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to allocate land for payment.
After the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approves, the city will sign a BT contract appendix with the investor. The project will be completed in 2026.
Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc directed the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Office to complete the working group to remove difficulties for the 10,000 billion VND flood prevention project. Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong was assigned as team leader, and directors of departments and branches as members.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requested that all contents under the responsibility of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee such as project adjustment, contract negotiation, proposal for land fund for BT payment, handover of settlement and audit must be completed in October 2025.
Regarding the payment of land funds, Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc requested a review of all previous contracts to clearly determine which land funds are eligible for payment and which land funds are not.
The nearly VND10,000 billion flood prevention project started in 2016 under the BT form.
The goal is to control flooding caused by high tides for an area of about 570 km2, with about 6.5 million people on the right bank of the Saigon River and the center of Ho Chi Minh City.
Although more than 90% of the project has been completed, the project has been forced to temporarily suspend construction since November 2020 due to difficulties in allocating capital and completing legal procedures.
The prolonged delay has caused large additional costs, with the daily interest alone reaching more than 1.7 billion VND.
On July 21, the Government issued Resolution 212 to remove difficulties and obstacles of the project, creating conditions for Ho Chi Minh City to restart and complete the project in 2026.
