Resolution 98, the "key" to unlocking traffic infrastructure bottlenecks in Ho Chi Minh City

(Dan Tri) - Resolution 98 is expected to clear the traffic infrastructure of Ho Chi Minh City, but without a proper path, the resolution is also stuck and entangled like the current situation of National Highway 13. Ms. Nguyet's family sells lunch along National Highway 13, Thu Duc City. Every early morning, this woman rides her motorbike to Thu Duc wholesale market, more than 300m from her house, to buy food. She feels all too familiar with traffic jams, sometimes having to "stand still" in the middle of traffic for up to 30 minutes on a short stretch of road. "After 6am, large and small vehicles continue to climb the sidewalk, driving in the opposite direction, making the jam more serious. If it rains again, water will definitely splash into the house," Ms. Nguyet described.

National Highway 13 is over 140km long, located within the scope of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 construction project, and is considered a vital route connecting the city's traffic with Binh Duong and Binh Phuoc. However, over the years, the planning has not been completed. This road in Binh Duong province is being expanded to 8 lanes. Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, this road only has 6 lanes passing through densely populated areas, connecting hundreds of vehicles every day from the old Eastern Bus Station (Binh Thanh District) to the inner city area, often congested. To have funds to expand the existing road section, a BOT toll station will be placed somewhere on National Highway 13. This will be implemented when Resolution 98 on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City is approved by the National Assembly from August 1. Previously, according to Resolution 54, BOT stations were only placed in new road projects. Resolution 98 will bring new opportunities and a new look to the aforementioned National Highway 13 and many other congested roads in the city, contributing to clearing traffic infrastructure and paving the way for the development of the economic "locomotive" of Ho Chi Minh City.

Dr. Huynh The Du, Economist, Lecturer of Public Policy at Fulbright University, said that it is difficult to see any changes in Ho Chi Minh City's traffic infrastructure, especially after 5 years of implementing Resolution 54.

"Inner-city transport infrastructure is still weak, not meeting the needs of both the public and individuals. Belt roads, expressways, national highways... are still at a standstill even with the new resolution," Mr. Du pointed out the current situation. "Resources for transport compared to the project implementation plan only reach about 30%," Mr. Tran Quang Lam, Director of the Department of Transport of Ho Chi Minh City, announced the information at the 10th session of the 10th term Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, on the morning of July 11. During the meeting, delegates raised the issue that the current implementation of regional transport projects is still slow, not synchronized with the population size, not commensurate with the position and role of the "locomotive" economy of Ho Chi Minh City. This is a bottleneck in the socio-economic development of the city and the entire Southeast region.

The City People's Committee has pointed out a number of shortcomings and main reasons why Ho Chi Minh City has not been able to develop transport infrastructure in the past time. Firstly, in terms of budget capital, the ability to balance is still limited, not meeting the needs to implement investment in developing the infrastructure system in general, especially projects in the medium-term public investment portfolio for the period 2021-2025 (traffic, flooding, housing, green parks, industrial infrastructure, lighting, etc.). Secondly, the capital mobilized from socialization is still limited, at the same time not attractive enough for investors to participate and is stuck in the legal framework: the BT investment form no longer exists, the BOT form is only applied to new roads, the PPP form exists but is not yet favorable, the regulations on land allocation through auction are still limited, etc.

A big problem is that compensation and site clearance (SCL) work is still being implemented too slowly; many projects have large SCL costs, so the financial plan is difficult to implement; the lack of clean land leads to some key projects and works being behind schedule... According to the summary of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, after 5 years of implementing Resolution 54, the goal of increasing revenue for the local budget is quite modest. In recent times, the growth momentum as well as the city's superiority compared to the whole country in some aspects has slowed down. At the end of 2022, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee submitted a document to the Government on the development of a resolution on pilot mechanisms and policies to create momentum for the development of Ho Chi Minh City, replacing Resolution 54. In the near future, on August 1, Resolution 98 will be passed to replace Resolution 54, allowing Ho Chi Minh City to implement many solutions to promote resources for transport infrastructure projects, promising to open a period of rapid development for the city.

Director of the Department of Transport Tran Quang Lam said that to implement the planning of connecting transport infrastructure, it is necessary to implement projects. And to implement the projects, resources and time are needed. "The first problem is the need for budget resources. The city has many projects planned to be implemented under the public-private partnership (PPP) method. If we wait for the city's budget to implement the projects, it will be delayed," said Mr. Lam. It is expected that a list of some important projects with intra-regional and inter-regional connectivity, of urgent and urgent nature, can be considered for applying the mechanism. At the same time, these projects will be able to contribute to increasing the value of neighboring land, increasing the city's budget revenue when the projects are implemented, completed and put into operation to generate additional revenue.

In particular, the previous BT contract for payment by land fund was very attractive to investors, however, this payment method is no longer suitable according to the law and the city does not have enough land fund to exchange. When using the budget, the city will make immediate payments to investors instead of having to wait for a clean site to pay, thereby reducing additional costs and time. Some projects using the BT form: Construction of Can Gio bridge; Construction of Nguyen Khoi road bridge; Upgrading and expanding Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay expressway (section from An Phu intersection to Ring Road 2); Expanding the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong expressway (section from Binh Thuan - Cho Dem and Tan Tao - Cho Dem); Expanding Ung Van Khiem road and building the Martyrs' Monument intersection; Building the Bon Xa intersection...

Or previously, BOT projects on existing roads were not allowed due to regulations, while the city could not balance the budget for building new roads and could not meet traffic needs on existing roads, which was a waste.

Projects that can be considered for investment under the BOT form include: Expanding National Highway 1 (divided into 3 sections corresponding to 3 projects); Upgrading and renovating National Highway 22 (from An Suong intersection to Ring Road 3); Expanding National Highway 13; Completing and extending the East-West axis to the South connecting to Ring Road 3; Expanding the North-South axis; Building a dynamic road (parallel to National Highway 50)... will need to attract about 100,000 billion VND of social capital to implement the above projects under the BOT form. In addition, according to Mr. Lam, Ho Chi Minh City will pilot the implementation of independent site clearance projects, separate from the transport project and reclaim land according to the current TOD planning, which are land areas with potential for exploitation and development along the main transport axis to create resources from land funds along transport projects, including metro line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien), Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3... "To proactively source capital for infrastructure investment, it is necessary to study the development of the transport economy, focusing on TOD", the Director of the Department of Transport affirmed.

In 2002, Mr. Lee Myung-bak, when he was running for mayor of Seoul (later became President of South Korea for the 2008-2013 term), affirmed: "During my term, I will reform the public transportation system". In fact, during Mayor Lee's term, he completely changed the face of Seoul. So can those implementing policies in Ho Chi Minh City affirm the same?

According to expert Huynh The Du, Mr. Lee is conveying a specific, clear message, so that people can grasp and quantify a policy, instead of just making a general statement "we have a new policy". From the perspective of a policy researcher who has spent many years studying Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Du raised the issue of the effectiveness of the new resolution on the city. Mr. Du assessed that the new resolution of nearly 13,000 words has everything that Ho Chi Minh City needs to solve - but, it has everything but lacks focus. "However, I have not seen any commitment from the leaders, have not seen any specific journey to believe that the new resolution has the ability to change the city. Ho Chi Minh City needs to choose a few strategic tasks to carry out, instead of spreading out and leaving everything unfinished", Mr. Du said. The expert commented that the problem is how to outline the path in the policy implementation process. If the path is right, it will take 10-30 years to turn around and achieve what Seoul and Hong Kong have today. If the path is wrong, the bottlenecks will continue to drag on, drag on and get worse.

According to Mr. Du, in the next 5 years of implementing Resolution 98, Ho Chi Minh City needs to do it: exploit the value of land and develop in the direction of TOD. TOD needs to be broadly understood as exploiting the value of land along the transport infrastructure, not just shortened to public transport orientation as it is commonly called today. "Exploiting the value of land is strategic and vital to determine the success of urban transport infrastructure development in the next few decades. If this cannot be done, money cannot be generated from infrastructure, and without money, it is very difficult to do the next things," the expert affirmed. According to the expert, in exploiting the value of land, it is possible to reclaim land or not, and at the same time, it is possible to use the method of land adjustment - that is, from the existing land, the planning can be adjusted to create value from it, it is not necessary to find a new land and leave what is available open. For example, for a land area with 100 houses, when applying the land adjustment mechanism, on that same land area will not only solve the problem of new housing for all 100 households with better living conditions, but also the investor will have more land to generate profit. The exploited values ​​from here will be used to contribute to the construction and improvement of traffic infrastructure around that land area.

According to Director of the Department of Transport Tran Quang Lam, Ho Chi Minh City will study the planning of developing projects along the urban railway lines (metro), Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 and expressways in the region. According to Resolution 98, Ho Chi Minh City is allowed to carry out land recovery, compensation and clearance projects independently, separate from construction projects. Therefore, exploiting land value to create budget revenue for the city becomes more convenient, without wasting time waiting and easily calling for investors. "In addition, the city is also studying to adjust local planning according to population size to ensure infrastructure", said the Director of the Department of Transport. From the above mechanisms, Ho Chi Minh City will review and determine the scope and appropriate projects to start implementing planning adjustments and study to establish land recovery projects, creating "clean" land funds for exploitation. This will both promote land funds associated with transport infrastructure. As a resident of Ho Chi Minh City, expert Huynh The Du has high hopes and hopes for the success of Resolution 98 to create changes for the city in the coming time. *** Selling rice right at the foot of Duc Nho Bridge (National Highway 13), Mr. T. witnessed and lamented the traffic jam that has been going on for nearly 20 years. "From the time the road surface was half as small as it is now, until now it has been widened but it is still congested. If the planning can prevent traffic jams, we all accept compensation and move elsewhere," said Mr. T. Next article: Infrastructure projects in Ho Chi Minh City are waiting for Resolution 98 to open the way

Content: Huy Hau , Spirituality , Phuoc Tuan

Photo: Hai Long , Nam Anh

Design: Tuan Huy

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source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/nghi-quyet-98-chia-khoa-mo-bung-diem-nghen-ha-tang-giao-thong-tphcm-20230721125230162.htm