Ho Chi Minh City’s transport industry is expecting Resolution 54 of the National Assembly to create more resources to develop transport infrastructure. Photo: CAO THANG |
Apply a special mechanism
Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is focusing on putting into use the whole Ring Road 2 by 2020 and a part of Ring Road 3. This deadline has been specifically determined according to the Resolution of the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City.
These are the two arterial traffic routes of Ho Chi Minh City. In which, Ring Road 2 currently has about 14km (divided into 4 sections) that have not been invested. Specifically, section 1 from Rach Chiec bridge on the Eastern belt (Phu Huu bridge) to Hanoi highway, including Binh Thai intersection, is 3.8km long (in District 9 and Thu Duc district). Section 2, from Binh Thai intersection to Pham Van Dong street, is 2km long (Thu Duc district). Section 3, from Pham Van Dong street to Go Dua intersection, 2.7km long (Thu Duc district), is organizing compensation and site clearance. Section 4, from An Lap intersection on National Highway 1 to Nguyen Van Linh street, is 5.3km long (through districts 8, Binh Tan and Binh Chanh). Chairman of Thu Duc District People’s Committee Dang Nguyen Thanh Minh affirmed that the district is focusing and striving by the end of 2018 to complete the work of compensation and site clearance for section 3 to hand over to the investor.
For sections 1 and 2, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has just approved the policy of prioritizing site clearance to quickly construct and close Ring Road 2. Accordingly, the City People’s Committee requested the Department of Planning and Investment to coordinate. with the Department of Finance prioritizing balance, advance, and arrangement of capital plans for District 9, Thu Duc to carry out site clearance. At the same time, the People’s Committees of District 9 and Thu Duc District coordinated with the Department of Planning and Investment to urgently complete the public investment procedures for compensation and site clearance projects to serve the closed Ring Road 2 projects.
Meanwhile, Ring Road 3 will pass through the following localities: Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Long An. This ring route is more than 89km long and the section through Ho Chi Minh City is 31km long, with a total investment of about VND 16,000 billion. Because Ring Road 3 passes through many provinces and cities, it is under the investment responsibility of the Central Government. However, to solve the urgent needs of the locality, Ho Chi Minh City proposed to apply Resolution 54 of the National Assembly for HCMC to coordinate in investing in Ring Road 3. Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City proposed to advance the city’s budget capital and advance the other resources to implement the Ring Road 3 project, the section through Ho Chi Minh City. After that, the central budget refunds the expenses that Ho Chi Minh City has advanced to invest when the project is put into use according to the specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City.
Prerequisites for key projects
For many years, the investment in transport infrastructure has always been interested and directed by the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City. However, finding investment capital to implement traffic infrastructure projects according to the approved planning faces many difficulties. Therefore, the completion of the road widening target is a big challenge for Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, in the 2015-2020 term, Ho Chi Minh City set a target of developing 172km of new roads. But by June 2018, Ho Chi Minh City had only done more than 30%. Director of the Department of Transport Bui Xuan Cuong confirmed that one of the main reasons is the lack of capital between demand and reality.
Currently, the HCMC budget allocated to invest in transport infrastructure is still low (about 35%) compared to actual needs. Therefore, the transport sector expects to develop a plan to implement the mechanism according to Resolution 54 of the National Assembly; Since then, Ho Chi Minh City will have more resources to allocate for transport infrastructure development.
Resolution 54 of the National Assembly allows Ho Chi Minh City to be proactive in the management and exploitation of infrastructure in combination with creating revenue for investment and development of transport infrastructure. Ho Chi Minh City is also actively mobilizing financial resources through a number of loans, collected from equitization and divestment of state-owned enterprises managed by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, to invest in socio-economic infrastructure; including urban transport infrastructure, reducing flooding. Along with that is mobilizing other legal financial resources, borrowing “beyond the common ceiling” or mobilizing public-private partnership (PPP) to soon complete projects. In particular, according to Resolution 54 of the National Assembly, Ho Chi Minh City is allowed to use Ho Chi Minh City’s budget to invest in important infrastructure projects in the approved medium-term public investment plan under the spending task of the state budget. Center. After that, the central budget will return it to Ho Chi Minh City.
On the other hand, with Resolution 54 of the National Assembly, Ho Chi Minh City is also allowed to decide on investment policies for group A projects (such as Ring Road 3) under the Law on Public Investment. Thus, investment management procedures and time are shortened, increasing the city’s initiative in the process of preparing to invest in Group A projects using the city’s budget, including transport investment projects. . For example, the project is Ring Road 3, the section through Ho Chi Minh City, will be studied and implemented in accordance with Resolution 54 of the National Assembly. In this project, the Department of Transport is completing the road investment implementation plan, reporting to the City People’s Committee to submit to the City Council for approval of the implementation policy.
According to SGGP
