Public investment capital in Ho Chi Minh City is stagnant in key projects.

“Buried capital” in key projects

“The disbursement rate of public investment capital in the first four months of the year in Ho Chi Minh City is still low, not reaching the set plan,” Ms. Le Thi Huynh Mai, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, assessed 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 has disbursed 6,068 billion VND of public investment capital, reaching 7.2% of the total public investment capital in 2025 of 85,500 billion VND.

In almost all monthly socio-economic meetings, the issue of public investment disbursement is discussed and proposed solutions, but nothing has changed. Not to mention, in the first 4 months of the year, the City has organized 7 thematic meetings on public investment, issued 21 directives to remove difficulties and obstacles for key projects and works...

Many key projects have been allocated investment capital of thousands of billions of VND, but by March 2025, disbursement was very slow, and some projects have not even disbursed any VND. Typically, the An Phu Intersection Construction Project has a total investment of VND 3,408 billion. In 2025, VND 754 billion was allocated to complete the project, but by March 2025, not a single VND has been disbursed.

According to the report of the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (TCIP), the above project is stuck with the clearance of 22,000 m2 of land on the side of An Phu Urban Development Area, so it cannot be implemented yet. Furthermore, the project must ensure traffic at the intersection while being constructed, so the construction progress is affected and the capital has not been disbursed yet.

In the same situation is the National Highway 50 expansion project in Binh Chanh district, which by March 2025 had not yet disbursed any money due to land clearance problems. Two other key projects with very low disbursement rates are the Ring Road 3 project through Ho Chi Minh City, which only disbursed more than VND 61 billion in the first quarter of 2025; the Tham Luong - Ben Cat - Nuoc Len canal environmental improvement project, which only disbursed VND 3.7 billion.

Along with roads, urban railway projects are also allocated huge capital. The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) said that the public investment capital plan for 2025 assigned to MAUR is VND2,829 billion. However, disbursement by March 2025 only reached more than VND316 billion (11.2%).

Regarding urban railway line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien), although it has been put into operation, capital has not been disbursed yet, because complaints and disputes have arisen since the start of construction in 2012 until now and have lasted through many periods, many stages of changes in related legal regulations, leading to many difficulties in handling the final stage and requiring a lot of time to review and handle thoroughly.

Once the procedure is resolved, the disbursement will be made immediately.

To improve the disbursement of public investment capital in the second quarter of 2025, Ms. Le Thi Huynh Mai proposed to focus on prioritizing the acceleration of investment procedures for a series of large-scale projects that can disburse capital this year, such as 4 BOT projects to expand National Highway 1, National Highway 22, the North-South axis (from Nguyen Van Linh to Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway) and National Highway 13, with a total investment of about 35,000 billion VND. Some other projects that can be disbursed immediately include the Van Thanh Canal Improvement Project (5,561 billion VND), Binh Tien Bridge and Road Project (871 billion VND).

From the perspective of the project appraisal unit, Mr. Tran Quang Lam, Director of the Department of Transport and Public Works of Ho Chi Minh City, said that appraisal of documents, selection of contractors and compensation for site clearance are key factors determining the progress of capital disbursement. To speed up the progress of investment procedures, investors need to improve the quality of project documents, avoiding the situation of "revising back and forth" that prolongs the appraisal time.

In addition, it is necessary to immediately implement compensation work according to the existing planning when the project is approved for investment policy, as Thu Duc City effectively did with the Ring Road 2 Project. "The selection of contractors also needs clear and transparent criteria to easily handle when contractors do not meet progress requirements," Mr. Lam proposed.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/von-dau-tu-cong-tai-tphcm-bi-dong-trong-cac-du-an-trong-diem-d281732.html