At a station of the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien urban railway project in Ho Chi Minh City which is under construction. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City had disbursed nearly 20.06 trillion VND (865.4 million USD) in public investment or 47.6 percent of the plan for the whole year as of the end of July, according to the municipal People’s Committee.
Though the disbursement rate was higher than the same period last year, it has failed to meet expectation of the government as well as the city leaders, and to become a factor boosting local economic growth.
It was largely attributed to the long delay in payment of land compensation, affecting progress of local projects and disbursement plans. Slow disbursement of Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans in Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien urban railway project was also blamed for the low rate. Just about 41 percent of the total 9.94 trillion VND in ODA allocated for the metro project has been disbursed so far.
Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that the city will continue taking several measures to speed up the disbursement of the local public investment.
HCM City sets to disburse at least 80 percent of the planned investment by October 15 and over 95 percent of the plan by the end of this year, Phong vowed.
The city will classify projects according to their importance, and assign officials to monitor their progress and remove barriers if necessary, he said. The city also decided to disburse capital for eligible projects within four working days and produce reports about challenges facing the disbursement every two weeks.
The will accelerate progress in payment of land compensation and resettlement, he added./.
VNA
