One of the biggest causes of delay is site clearance. Of the VND59,500 billion that has not been disbursed, more than VND30,000 billion is in projects that need site clearance, especially in three major projects: Xuyen Tam Canal renovation (Binh Thanh and Go Vap districts), Doi Canal northern bank renovation (District 8) and two sections of Ring Road 2 (Thu Duc City). For the Xuyen Tam Canal project, this year, more than VND12,000 billion has been allocated (including VND212 billion in compensation capital in Go Vap district and VND11,672 billion in Binh Thanh district, VND200 billion for construction, consulting and other costs). Go Vap district has 138 cases that need site clearance, of which only 35 have been handed over. Binh Thanh district has 2,077 affected cases but has just issued a notice of land reclamation. The Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project (investor) has requested Binh Thanh and Go Vap districts to approve the compensation and resettlement support plan before December 15, and at the same time requested the investor to transfer the advance payment before December 20 to promptly disburse all compensation capital.
The Doi Canal renovation project is also facing similar difficulties, with 1,633 cases affected. Despite being allocated VND5,374 billion, the project has yet to approve the feasibility study report and compensation plan for disbursement.
In Thu Duc, two sections of Ring Road 2, over 6km long, require the acquisition of more than 61 hectares of land, affecting 1,166 households with an estimated compensation cost of VND7,600 billion. Thu Duc City committed to approving the compensation plan and starting payment in December.
This year, the Metro Line 1 project had to disburse VND4,467 billion, but by November 20, only VND1,128 billion had been disbursed (reaching 25.26% of the plan). The main reason was disagreement between members of the CP1a contractor consortium (underground section from Ben Thanh station to City Theater station), leading to disagreement in signing contract appendices related to implementation time, payment and issuance of VAT invoices. The Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board alone had to disburse more than VND5,000 billion in the last month of the year.
Mr. Luong Minh Phuc, Director of this Board, said that they are focusing on four key tasks: Speeding up the construction of current projects; prioritizing the Ring Road 3 project with 1,500 billion VND in need of disbursement; completing site clearance for 15 key projects (total value of about 1,500 billion VND); starting new projects and making contract advances to speed up disbursement.
Mr. Pham Trung Kien - Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City - said that the progress of public investment disbursement has not met expectations. Most of the newly funded projects are still completing investment procedures and have not yet reached the disbursement stage.
