After more than a year of piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City, Resolution 98 has been gradually concretized and put into practice. During that time, the Ho Chi Minh City government has undertaken a huge amount of work to create a strong enough legal framework for the Resolution to bring practical values.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that up to now, the locality has basically completed the issuance of documents to specify specific mechanisms and policies. However, the city is only at the beginning of implementing, applying and transforming the documents into practical values.
“For Ho Chi Minh City, Resolution 98 is expected to open up a mechanism to mobilize resources and remove mechanisms for decentralization and delegation. Both of these have not achieved the desired results,” the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City frankly admitted.
One of the reasons shared by the leader of Ho Chi Minh City is that despite having specific mechanisms and policies, the locality has not yet had the necessary initiative. In the process of asking for opinions and guidance from the Central level, the city has repeatedly received the answer "compare with current regulations".
Billions of dollars are waiting
One of the new points of Resolution 98 is to allow Ho Chi Minh City to apply the public-private partnership (PPP) model for health, education and cultural projects. This content is expected to contribute to creating momentum for the development of the culture, sports and tourism sector in the area and create sustainable development for Ho Chi Minh City in the coming period.
The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee informed that, up to now, the locality has approved a list of 41 projects, of which 12 are in the field of education and training, 6 are in the field of health, and 23 are in the field of sports and culture. When calling for investment in this entire list, the city can mobilize a capital of 1 billion USD, but to date, almost no project has been fully implemented.
Resolution 98 is expected to open up a mechanism to mobilize resources and remove mechanisms for decentralization and delegation of authority.
The head of the city government also pointed out that the cause of the problem is that departments, branches and localities are still slow in implementation.
For projects implemented under BT (build-transfer) and BOT (build-operate-transfer) contracts under Resolution 98, the city has completed the list and basically completed the pre-feasibility study. It is expected that in September, the locality will hold a conference to contact investors.
“If these BT and BOT projects are implemented, the city will attract nearly 1 billion USD more. However, the city is facing problems in updating the list of new projects to proactively implement them due to work overload. Preparing project documents requires many steps,” Mr. Phan Van Mai shared.
Another issue clarified by the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City is the determination of the list and preferential sectors for strategic investors. Before submitting this list to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council for approval, the locality must consult and gain consensus from the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
“We still have to be bound and unified between ministries and branches, so it is still slow. The city is determined to solve this problem in the third quarter of this year,” said the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City.
The head of the city government emphasized that removing these obstacles is a prerequisite to attract large investors for the Can Gio International Transit Port project and the city's High-Tech Park. Recently, the world's major technology corporations have shown signs of returning to Ho Chi Minh City with investment packages of 2-3 billion USD. The locality needs to quickly remove bottlenecks and organize investment promotion to be able to implement them next year.
Need to change the way of doing things
Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan analyzed that Resolution 98 has two clear goals: to create initiative, dynamism, and creativity for the city government and to mobilize private resources, social resources, and foreign investment capital. The issue of decentralization and authorization to the city has had relatively clear results, but in terms of resource mobilization, what has been done is not much.
“All the work that has been done, the regulations, resolutions, and policies that have been issued are only the first step, not enough to arouse and attract specific values,” said the Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
One of the issues raised by Mr. Vo Van Hoan is the mindset in implementation. Despite calling for foreign investment and socialization, the projects are still implemented according to the policies and procedures of public investment.
The work that Ho Chi Minh City has implemented in Resolution 98 is not enough to evoke and attract specific values.
“For example, a fully autonomous public service unit can be proactive in administrative costs, salaries, and even investment, the State does not need to worry about anything. But we still manage it like public investment, upgrading and repairing according to the same process,” the Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City pointed out.
According to Mr. Vo Van Hoan, one thing that the locality has not considered is to come up with policies and regulations for businesses to participate from the beginning. Currently, the city is still struggling to find ways to prepare all favorable conditions before inviting them, causing businesses to lack the necessary initiative.
“For example, when the city wants to build a bridge, it only needs a policy and decision. Businesses can also contribute ideas on how the bridge should be built. At that time, the bridge will be more beautiful and of better quality than if we had thought of the bridge first and then invited them to build it,” Mr. Vo Van Hoan cited.
The Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also pointed out the situation of "waiting for work to be done before implementing", while proactively solving problems. Typically, businesses really need a mechanism to unbundle to build social housing themselves, but the regulations are not flexible.
“We are also struggling while carefully studying the exchange of social housing and commercial housing. This makes the city unable to have social housing while officials in need cannot buy it. The old problem still exists but the new one has not been completed yet,” the Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City analyzed.
Resolution 98 is not a magic wand
In an overall assessment after the period of implementing Resolution 98, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai clarified that the work was slower than expected, but the results achieved were at a relatively high level compared to the previous Resolution 54. This is clearly shown in the huge amount of work that the locality has completed after one year.
“Resolution 98 is not a magic wand, nor is it a resolution to solve all problems. We should not put a mission beyond our capacity on this resolution,” Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized.
City government leaders believe that with limited capacity and time, and many external issues that have not been clarified, it is not unrealistic for the locality to implement Resolution 98. Instead, Ho Chi Minh City sets high enough requirements to make an effort, but not too high to fail.
“The story here is that we cannot do everything ourselves, but must interact and deal with current regulations and the above agencies. Even if we are not satisfied, the city cannot do everything in one year, instead we must focus on following the assigned tasks and responsibilities,” Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized.
After one year of implementing Resolution 98, Ho Chi Minh City has achieved many positive results, creating important premises and impetus for rapid and sustainable development. A number of mechanisms and policies have been put into practice and created high consensus in society.
In terms of investment management, Ho Chi Minh City has been implementing four mechanisms: allocating public investment capital of VND3,794 billion to support poverty reduction and job creation; approving a list of seven TOD development locations along metro lines; issuing a list of 41 investment projects in the fields of health, education, and culture under the public-private partnership model; and approving five BOT projects to upgrade, expand, and modernize existing roads.
Regarding the group of financial mechanisms, the State budget has 12 mechanisms, the locality has arranged public investment capital of 1,500 billion VND to support interest rates for investment projects lent by HFIC (Ho Chi Minh City State Financial Investment Company) in priority areas of socio-economic development; put into balance from salary reform sources to spend additional income of 11,287 billion VND; supported Dien Bien province with 75 billion VND to implement a number of projects...
In the group of mechanisms on urban, natural resources and environmental management, there are 13 mechanisms, of which Ho Chi Minh City has implemented 7 mechanisms. Of which, the locality has changed the purpose of using rice land for 1 project with an area of 0.04 ha; approved the investment policy for 1 project providing the market with about 2,000 apartments and social housing; 5 units have registered to convert waste incineration technology to generate electricity for 5 factories; 2 projects have been added with the goal of burning waste to generate electricity.
Regarding priority industries and professions to attract strategic investors, Ho Chi Minh City has developed a form for disclosing information on projects to attract strategic investors and is consulting with relevant ministries and agencies, updating the form according to the new regulations of the 2023 Bidding Law.
Ho Chi Minh City is also implementing 2 mechanisms on science and technology management and innovation; 9 mechanisms on government apparatus organization.
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