"Capital tied up" in key projects.
"The disbursement rate of public investment capital in Ho Chi Minh City during the first four months of the year remains low and has not met the set plan," assessed Ms. Le Thi Huynh Mai, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, at a recent meeting on the socio -economic situation in the first four months of the year.
According to data from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, from the beginning of the year to the end of April 2025, the city disbursed 6,068 billion VND of public investment capital, reaching 7.2% of the total public investment capital for 2025 of 85,500 billion VND.
Almost every month, the issue of disbursing public investment funds is discussed and debated in socio-economic meetings, with solutions proposed to address the problems, yet nothing has changed. Furthermore, in the first four months of the year, the city held seven specialized meetings on public investment and issued 21 directives to resolve difficulties and obstacles for key projects and works...
Many key projects have been allocated trillions of dong in investment capital, but by March 2025, disbursement has been very slow, and some projects have not disbursed any funds at all. A typical example is the An Phu Interchange Construction Project, with a total investment of 3,408 billion dong. 754 billion dong was allocated for its completion in 2025, but by March 2025, no funds had been disbursed.
According to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board (TCIP), the project is currently facing difficulties in land clearance for 22,000 m2 in the An Phu Urban Development Area, preventing construction from commenced. Furthermore, the project requires maintaining traffic flow at intersections while construction is underway, impacting progress and hindering the disbursement of funds.
Similarly, the National Highway 50 expansion project in Binh Chanh district has not disbursed any funds by March 2025 due to land clearance issues. Two other key projects with very low disbursement rates are the Ring Road 3 project through Ho Chi Minh City, which only disbursed over 61 billion VND in the first quarter of 2025; and the Tham Luong - Ben Cat - Nuoc Len canal environmental improvement project, which only disbursed 3.7 billion VND.
Along with road projects, urban railway projects are also allocated very large amounts of capital. The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) stated that the public investment plan for 2025 allocated to MAUR is 2,829 billion VND. However, disbursement by March 2025 had only reached over 316 billion VND (11.2%).
Regarding urban railway line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien), although it has been put into operation, the capital cannot be disbursed yet because of complaints and disputes that have arisen since the commencement of construction in 2012 and have dragged on through many periods and stages of changes in relevant legal regulations. This has made resolving the final stage difficult and requires a long time for review and resolution.
Once the procedures are streamlined, the funds can be disbursed immediately.
To improve the disbursement of public investment capital in the second quarter of 2025, Ms. Le Thi Huynh Mai proposed prioritizing the acceleration of investment procedures for a series of large-scale projects capable of disbursing capital this year, such as four BOT projects to expand National Highway 1, National Highway 22, the North-South axis (section from Nguyen Van Linh to Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway), and National Highway 13, with a total investment of approximately 35,000 billion VND. Other projects with the potential for immediate disbursement include the Van Thanh Canal Renovation Project (5,561 billion VND) and the Binh Tien Bridge and Road Project (871 billion VND).
From the perspective of the project appraisal unit, Mr. Tran Quang Lam, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport and Public Works, believes that document appraisal, contractor selection, and land compensation and clearance are key factors determining the progress of capital disbursement. To expedite investment procedures, investors need to improve the quality of project documentation, avoiding the situation of "repeated revisions" that prolong the appraisal process.
In addition, compensation work should be implemented immediately according to the existing plan once the investment policy for the project is approved, similar to the effective approach taken by Thu Duc City for the Ring Road 2 project. "The selection of contractors also needs clear and transparent criteria to facilitate handling situations where contractors fail to meet deadlines," Mr. Lam suggested.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/von-dau-tu-cong-tai-tphcm-bi-dong-trong-cac-du-an-trong-diem-d281732.html
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