Workers at the contruction site of metro route No 1, which is partly funded by ODA capital, in HCM City (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi MinhCity People’s Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen has asked local departments anddistricts to disburse all public investment capital from 2017 by the end ofJanuary 2018.
At a meeting on August 3 to review the city’sdisbursement of public investment capital, Deputy Director of the municipalDepartment of Planning and Investment Tran Thi Binh Minh said more than 26.18trillion VND (1.15 billion USD) has been allocated from the State budget to HCMCity so far this year.
The city had disbursed 13.21 trillion VND (581.1million USD) as of July 31, 50 percent of the sum planned to be disbursed thisyear. That includes 722 billion VND (31.8 million USD) of capital from thecentral budget, 22 percent of total State capital subject to disbursement.
HCM City also disbursed 2.9 trillion VND (127.6million USD) or 72 percent of Official Development Assistance (ODA) capitalallocated by central agencies as of July 31. Meanwhile, local projects needabout 7.7 trillion VND (338.7 million USD) of ODA capital this year.
Minh said as the provided ODA capital has met about50 percent of local demand, HCM City will struggle to soon finish manyprojects.
This is also a reason behind the slow payment ofcontracts signed with foreign partners, which could force the city to pay finesfor late payment, she added.
Meanwhile, about 9.59 trillion VND (421.9million USD) or 51 percent of capital sourced from the city’s budget wasdisbursed as of July 31. This sluggish disbursement is mainly attributable toslow site clearance.
While the capacity of some investors, projectmanaging boards and consultancies remains inconsistent, contractors selectedfor some projects changed for one service multiple times, affecting theprogress of projects, participants at the meeting were told.-VNA
VNA
