On November 15, the Office of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee announced the conclusion of Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai at a meeting on the project to relocate all houses on and along canals, in order to clear the flow, improve environmental sanitation, combine urban beautification and exploit land funds for economic development.
According to statistics, Ho Chi Minh City currently has more than 48,000 houses located on and along rivers, canals and streams. Of these, only about 1,400 have been compensated and cleared.
About 46,500 remaining houses do not have specific plans for compensation, support or resettlement.
At the meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai assigned the Department of Home Affairs to preside over and coordinate with relevant units to advise on the establishment of a Steering Committee to develop the project before November 25.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee will be the Head of the Steering Committee, and Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong will be the Deputy Head. This Committee will include leaders of departments such as Construction, Natural Resources and Environment, Finance, Planning - Architecture, Planning and Investment, and Chairmen of People's Committees of relevant districts.
In addition, a working group headed by the Director of the Department of Construction has also been established to provide regular support. The steering committee will meet twice a month to ensure progress.
The Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction is assigned to preside over and coordinate with units to urgently develop an outline, regulations, and implementation plan for the project to report and submit to the Steering Committee for consideration and comments to submit to the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council for consideration before March 2025.
In parallel, the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies must conduct a sociological survey of 46,500 houses on and along rivers, canals and ditches.
The survey will be conducted from December 2 and the report will be completed before December 30. This process aims to clearly identify the subjects, scale, survey methods and resettlement plans.
District 8 - where there are the most houses along the canal - was assigned to complete a pilot project on relocating houses and land, and at the same time propose plans to utilize the land fund after clearance for economic development.
The Department of Planning and Architecture will coordinate with other departments and sectors to review available land funds, including land for social housing construction and land for economic development. Population allocation plans and population targets will also be carefully studied to ensure effective and sustainable land use.
The Director of the Department of Construction was assigned to research social housing models with aesthetic design, high quality but reasonable construction costs. At the same time, consulting units will be consulted to come up with construction plans suitable for the relocated areas.
This major project is an important step forward but also full of challenges when it has to synchronously solve issues from legal, financial, to people's consensus.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has requested heads of units to focus on completing tasks before November 30 to ensure the progress of the project.
