Strong enough finance to remove the biggest bottleneck in infrastructure development in the Southeast region

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies Truong Minh Huy Vu said that the bottleneck in infrastructure development in the Southeast region is the lack of regional investment and funding policies.

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai and chairmen of provinces in the Southeast region and Long An province discussed action solutions for double-digit regional growth - Photo: CHAU TUAN

On the morning of January 15, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held a working conference with the provinces of the Southeast region and Long An province. The conference was attended by the chairmen and leaders of departments and branches of the provinces of the Southeast region and Long An province.

The Southeast region must take the lead.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Mr. Phan Van Mai - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee - said that when General Secretary To Lam worked with the Economic - Social Subcommittee of the 14th National Party Congress, he set out many policies for the country to enter a new era.

In particular, the Red River Delta and the Southeast play a major role, contributing about 50% of GRDP and the national budget. If these two regions are concentrated, they can contribute about 60% of GRDP and the national budget.

In response to this request, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that localities must quickly sit down to study and discuss the issues in depth, and finalize the key points for development in the coming period. How can the Southeast region take the lead when the whole country enters a new era?

"In action, each locality takes care of its own locality but must take care of each other, only then will the Southeast region be truly strong. With the spirit of entering a new era, we must think together about common and big things to come up with an action program for the next period," Mr. Mai shared.

It is necessary to establish a Southeast Region Infrastructure Development Fund.

Director of Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies Truong Minh Huy Vu speaks at the conference - Photo: CHAU TUAN

The Chairman of the City People's Committee also emphasized the establishment of the Southeast Region Infrastructure Development Fund. This fund has been approved in principle by the Prime Minister and assigned to the Ministry of Finance, but so far there has been little movement.

Reporting at the conference, Mr. Truong Minh Huy Vu - Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies - pointed out bottlenecks in regional infrastructure development.

According to Mr. Vu, currently there is regional planning but the biggest problem is that there is no investment and funding policy for the Southeast region.

Specifically, there is no policy for investing in regional projects using joint budgets between provinces. There is no policy for mobilizing public-private partnerships or ODA for regional projects. This is the biggest bottleneck.

The Director of the Institute for Development Studies of the City believes that if the Southeast region wants to achieve double-digit growth, there are only two ways: increasing investment scale and investment efficiency.

"To increase the scale of investment, we must increase public investment and private investment. Therefore, regional investment and funding mechanisms are very important, including a regional investment fund," said Mr. Vu.

For long-term development, the Southeast region must establish a Regional Infrastructure Development Fund. With the large demand for infrastructure development, the Southeast region must have strong enough financial tools.

He cited examples such as the Southeast region wanting to form the Long Thanh airport urban area. Once the airport is operational, it may need 30-40 billion USD or a series of urban areas related to major projects in the region.

However, these capital flows cannot be arranged from public investment sources but must have private and foreign investment sources. Therefore, the role of regional infrastructure development funds is very important.

Mr. Vu also proposed two mechanisms to form this fund, which can propose a regional-specific mechanism or include it in the resolution related to the International and Regional Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tai-chinh-du-manh-de-thao-diem-nghen-lon-nhat-trong-phat-trien-ha-tang-vung-dong-nam-bo-20250115105853603.htm