Hanoi wants to issue bonds to fund strategic projects.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - During the period 2013-2015, Hanoi issued 11,400 billion VND in bonds to fund the city's development. This is one of the effective solutions that helps the city be more proactive in balancing investment resources.

Báo Dân trí•01/06/2026

The Hanoi People's Committee is currently seeking public opinion on the draft Resolution of the City People's Council regarding the issuance of local government bonds, project bonds, construction bonds, and municipal bonds; and borrowing from credit institutions and the State Treasury (implementing point c, clause 5, Article 21 of the 2026 Capital City Law).

The Hanoi People's Committee stated that the capital needs for the city's strategic projects in the 2026-2035 period, especially the urban railway system, ring roads, bridges across the Red River, environmental treatment projects, digital transformation, and smart city development, are very large.

According to Hanoi, relying solely on public investment funds from the state budget will not meet the requirements for investment progress and scale.

Simultaneously, the issuance of project bonds, infrastructure bonds, and municipal bonds will allow the city to link mobilized capital to specific projects or groups of projects, enhance transparency, increase access to institutional investors, investment funds, and domestic and foreign financial institutions, while expanding the scale and maturity of capital mobilization.

In addition, the mechanism of borrowing from credit institutions and from the State budget helps the city proactively handle short-term capital needs, ensure the progress of urgent projects, take advantage of favorable market conditions, and reduce the cost of capital, according to Hanoi.

Hanoi wants to issue bonds to fund strategic projects - 1

A view of Hanoi from above (Photo: Nguyen Hai).

Regarding borrowing from credit institutions, according to the draft, based on the local budget estimates, the total annual borrowing amount will be decided by the City People's Council, and the Department of Finance will report to the City People's Committee on the plan for borrowing capital from domestic financial institutions and credit institutions in accordance with regulations.

The City People's Committee and the lending institution shall agree on the terms of the loan, but the loan must be in Vietnamese Dong, the interest rate and other related costs must be in line with the general market interest rate at the time of borrowing, and the loan term must be at least 3 years.

The People's Committee of the city or the authorized agency/unit shall negotiate the procedures, documents, and sign the loan agreement with the lending institution.

Regarding borrowing from the State budget, the draft regulations stipulate that the total annual borrowing amount will be based on the local budget estimates approved by the National Assembly and the City People's Council.

The People's Committee of the city has submitted a document, along with relevant files, to the Ministry of Finance for consideration and decision on allowing the city's budget to borrow from the State Treasury, in accordance with the availability of temporarily idle State Treasury funds at the time of consideration and decision on borrowing from the State Treasury for the city's local budget.

Loans from the State budget to the city's local budget must be repaid on time in accordance with the Government's regulations on State budget management and cannot be extended.

The interest rate applied to loans from the State budget for the city budget is 0% per year. The City People's Committee advises the City People's Council to allocate funds for loan repayment and State budget usage costs (if any).

According to the Hanoi Department of Finance, during the period 2013-2015, the Hanoi People's Committee issued 11,400 billion VND in bonds for the construction of the capital city, including 4,400 billion VND in 2013, 3,000 billion VND in 2014, and 4,000 billion VND in 2015.

The agency assessed that the bond issuance during this period made a significant contribution to supplementing medium and long-term capital for the city's budget, facilitating the acceleration of the implementation of key transportation, education, health, water supply and drainage, and other technical infrastructure projects.

According to the Department of Finance, this is one of the effective financial solutions that helps the city be more proactive in balancing investment resources, reducing the pressure of allocating budget capital each year and utilizing idle capital in the economy.

The agency also stated that after 2015, Hanoi did not continue issuing local government bonds due to budget balancing conditions, prioritizing the use of other sources of capital such as government loans and public investment capital from the state budget.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/ha-noi-muan-phat-hanh-trai-phieu-de-lam-cac-du-an-chien-luoc-20260528192849533.htm