Ho Chi Minh City points out the reason for low ODA capital disbursement in the first half of 2024

In the first half of 2024, the ODA disbursement rate in Ho Chi Minh City only reached 13.2%. The reasons given were complicated procedures, slow project design, bidding, appraisal and approval.

Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just issued Document No. 194/BC-UBND reporting to the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the management and use of ODA capital and preferential loans in the first 6 months of 2024.

According to the report of the Ho Chi Minh City government, in the first 6 months of 2024, the City did not sign international treaties on ODA and preferential loans.

Currently, the City is implementing 5 ODA projects with a total investment of 114,529 billion VND, including 4 group A projects (with a total investment of over 10,000 billion VND) and one group B project.

Metro line number (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) uses ODA loans from Japan. Photo: Le Toan

The ODA capital plan assigned to the City in 2024 is 5,372 billion VND. However, in the first 6 months of 2024, the ODA capital disbursement rate only reached 711 billion VND, reaching 13.2% compared to the assigned capital plan.

According to the assessment of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in the first half of 2024, the disbursement rate of ODA capital in some projects is not high.

Part of the reason is related to the complicated processes and procedures for managing and using ODA capital according to regulations. On the other hand, the procedures for adjusting investment policies, adjusting projects, extending procedures, negotiating and signing loan agreements take a lot of time...

In addition, many projects have been allocated ODA capital but cannot be disbursed because the procedures according to the contract terms have not been completed. For example, Metro Project No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) payment for a work item can only be made when the contractor completes 100%.

Therefore, up to now, although the total project implementation volume has reached 98.12%, some completed items have not yet been paid.

For construction and installation work at the construction site, due to the nature of the equipment package, after completing the installation, there must be system testing results before payment can be made, which has affected the disbursement rate.

In addition, the capacity of the project implementation organization has not met the requirements. In particular, the work of project design, bidding, appraisal and approval is slow due to the expertise and capacity of the investor and consultant; the quality of the documents has not met the requirements so it has to be adjusted many times.

Regarding the solution to speed up the disbursement of ODA capital from now until the end of the year, Ho Chi Minh City will carefully review each procedure and each stage to specifically assess the disbursement capacity of each project. From there, the capital plan will be transferred from slow-disbursement projects to projects with good disbursement progress and lacking capital.

For completed items, prepare payment records as soon as the volume is available, ensuring compliance with regulations.

The Working Group resolves difficulties and obstacles related to ODA capital, organizes regular meetings with ODA project investors to review and resolve difficulties during project implementation.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tphcm-chi-ra-nguyen-nhan-giai-ngan-von-oda-thap-trong-nua-dau-nam-2024-d219995.html