HCM City (VNA) –
Upgrading old buildings and relocating households living near canals are among
the major projects that Ho Chi Minh City aims to carry out now and in the near
future, according to city authorities.
The city recently organised
a seminar that sought collaboration between investors and banks in seven
so-called breakthrough programmes.
Participating banks have
signed loan agreements for eight projects, worth a total of 26 trillion VND (1.1
billion USD) under the public–private partnership (PPP) investment mode.
The projects include a
North-South road worth 18 trillion VND and Nguyen Tat Thanh Street worth 4.6
trillion VND.
Chairman of the city
People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that loans for the eight projects
had created a push for future projects, as the city has a limited local budget.
More businesses are
expected to invest under the PPP mode, he said.
Around 153 projects have
been carried out under the PPP mode in HCM City, with total investment of 451
trillion VND (!9.9 billion USD), of which 23 projects worth a total of 71
trillion VND have been completed, and another 130 projects worth 380 trillion VND
are underway.
Though the number of
projects under the PPP mode only accounted for 5 percent of the total of
public-invested projects, the amount of investment was 51 times higher than
total public investment during the 2011-15 period, he added.
Pham Phu Quoc, Director of
the HCM City Finance and Investment State-owned Company (HFIC), said that HFIC
had sponsored 152 infrastructure projects in the city, valued at a combined 25
trillion VND (1.1 billion USD).
It has also called for 26.8
trillion VND of local government bonds, he added.
Upgrading old buildings and
building new ones are part of the city’s modernisation plan.
At least 474 old buildings
were built before 1975. Since the beginning of 2016, 1,592 households in four
old buildings have been relocated.
The People’s Committee will
be in charge of making decisions on relocating residents who live near canals
to other areas and upgrading infrastructure.
To effectively handle the
seven “breakthrough” programmes that are key to the city’s development during
the 2016-20 period, the city needs a total of 850 trillion (37.5 billion USD)
in funds.
Sixty percent of that total
would be for anti-flooding, transport and infrastructure-related projects.-VNA