HCM City seeks private funds for projects hinh anh 1More than BOT projects were implemented to expand the National Road 1. (Illustration Photo: qdnd.vn)

Mobilising resources from the private sector for transport infrastructure is posing a challenge for HCM City, which needs at least 60 billion USD until 2020 to carry out projects, according to experts.

Investors have been reluctant to take part in Public-Private Partnerships because of low profits and the lack of a support policy from the city government, experts said at a recent seminar which was organised by the city's Department of Planning and Investment.

Su Ngoc Anh, deputy director of the department, said that private sector investment was essential because the city lacked sufficient funds from its budget for infrastructure projects.

The Government issued Decree No.15 on mobilising funds from the private sector but implementation has faced hurdles as clear instructions have not been issued.

Nguyen Hoang Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the city's Steering Centre of the Urban Flood Control Programme, said his centre had cooperated with other sectors to seek financial sources, but the results had been limited.

Dung said the centre needed 67 trillion VND to build four wastewater treatment factories, three reservoirs, 200km of drainage pipes, eight sluice gates and 12km of dykes, among others.

He explained that investors had ignored these projects because they yielded little profit.

Nguyen Van Huong, of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said the ministry would establish a fund in 2017 for projects to seek funds from the private sector.

Huong said the ministry had established the fund in collaboration with ADB, which will offer a 300 USD million loan. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and others are also expected to be involved.

Total fund estimated to be about 500 million USD, and could go up to 1 billion USD if it draws attention from other financial organisations.-VNA

VNA