The National Assembly Standing Committee approved the establishment of the National Housing Development Fund.

(Chinhphu.vn) - On the afternoon of April 25, continuing the 44th session, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for social housing development.

Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh presented a summary of the draft resolution.

Briefly presenting the draft Resolution, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh said that despite achieving some important results, the development of social housing still has some shortcomings and limitations. One limitation is that there is no National Housing Development Fund or appropriate financial institution model to support financial resources for localities and enterprises to implement social housing projects to ensure long-term and sustainability.

The summary report on the implementation of the Housing Law in 2014 stated: "Currently, the whole country has only a few housing development funds such as: Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Fund, Binh Duong Province Housing Development Fund, Dong Nai Province Housing Development Fund, Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province Housing Development Fund...

The main functions and activities of these funds are to lend to low-income earners to build houses; to lend to housing projects under the city's housing program; to lend capital to households and individuals to build new or repair boarding houses for workers to rent; to directly invest in creating a social housing fund for the city, to manage social housing funds and resettlement houses; to manage and exploit worker accommodation areas...

The largest housing development fund in operation is the Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Fund (in operation since 2005). By 2023, the Fund had disbursed loans to more than 5,500 low-income people to build houses, with a total amount of nearly VND 2,800 billion, supporting loans for 9 housing projects with a total disbursement of over VND 320 billion. At the same time, it received, organized the management and exploitation of 2 worker accommodation projects and was the investor of 2 social housing projects with a scale of over 3,000 apartments with a total investment of over VND 2,800 billion.

However, in 2021, this Fund is facing difficulties in operation because the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has not yet provided additional charter capital for implementation.

In addition, according to the Deputy Minister of Construction, due to the limited operating capital of the Housing Development Fund, most local housing development funds have been merged into local development investment funds. Currently, there are 43 funds operating nationwide, including 40 development investment funds, 01 100% State-owned Company (HFIC), 01 Investment Support Fund under the Investment Law, 01 Land Development Fund entrusted to manage the Development Investment Fund (Quang Binh). The operating model is independent, including the Board of Management, the Board of Supervisors and the executive apparatus, for the Ho Chi Minh City State Finance Company (HFIC) operating under the model of a 100% state-owned enterprise. Some local development investment funds are also implementing construction investment. In addition to the Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Fund, there are 4 funds directly investing in social housing: Lao Cai, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh, Dak Lak with a total investment of 743 billion VND and providing 1,345 social housing apartments...

However, these local development funds are facing difficulties in their operations due to lack of additional capital, making it difficult to provide preferential capital for long-term, sustainable social housing development.

Although the 2023 Housing Law has provisions on the use of capital from other extra-budgetary state financial funds to develop social housing, however, extra-budgetary financial funds are currently performing many functions and investment or support for social housing development is not a priority area in the operations of these funds.

In addition, currently, some social housing projects are still stuck in arranging funds for compensation, support, resettlement, investment in technical infrastructure systems, social infrastructure outside the project scope; support for social housing projects for rent, hire-purchase; support for interest rates on loans that do not require mortgages but have not been supported with these funds, leading to social housing development not meeting the set requirements.

Therefore, it is necessary to study and establish a "National Housing Development Fund" from the state budget and other legal sources to solve the above problems, while creating a sustainable, long-term source of capital for social housing development.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh delivered a concluding speech at the meeting.

Clarifying the expenditure tasks of the National Housing Development Fund

Presenting the review report, Mr. Hoang Van Lien, Vice Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee, said that the Committee approved the establishment of the National Housing Development Fund; at the same time, proposed to clarify the legal status and organizational model of the Fund to have a basis for assigning the Government to specify in detail; clarify the Fund's expenditure tasks to ensure that the Fund's expenditure tasks do not overlap with the expenditure tasks of the state budget, ensuring strictness, avoiding loopholes, loss and waste.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that the National Assembly Standing Committee approved the establishment of the National Housing Development Fund, which requires mobilizing and using many social resources to effectively participate in this fund; referring to the experience of other countries, it is possible to form this fund according to the model of the national housing development investment fund.

Anh Tho

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/uy-ban-thuong-vu-quoc-hoi-tan-thanh-viec-thanh-lap-quy-phat-trien-nha-o-quoc-gia-102250425174726098.htm