Why is Ho Chi Minh City's public investment disbursement slow?

In 8 months, Ho Chi Minh City has disbursed about 55,566 billion VND of public investment capital, reaching 36.7% of the capital plan assigned by the City and 46.7% of the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister .

Specifically, in 2025, the Prime Minister assigned Ho Chi Minh City to disburse public investment of VND 118,948.861 billion. At the same time, after the arrangement, Ho Chi Minh City was allowed to extend the implementation period and disburse central budget capital to 2025, which is VND 508.662 billion.

Previously, by the end of the second quarter, Ho Chi Minh City's public investment disbursement had increased to 43%. This was also the first time Ho Chi Minh City was praised by the Government for its high public investment disbursement rate in a quarter.

However, by early September, the city's public investment disbursement only reached 46.7% of the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

An Phu intersection is one of the typical traffic projects with slow progress that is constantly mentioned.

Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc said that when there was strong direction, the disbursement rate in the second quarter increased to more than 43%, the first time in history that the disbursement rate in the second quarter was over 40%. However, up to now, it is only at 46.7%. That shows that the disbursement work is not fundamental, and the site clearance for key projects is always stuck and confused.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, the slow disbursement of public investment in Ho Chi Minh City is largely due to subjective reasons, in which the coordination between the Compensation and Site Clearance Board and the communes and wards is not tight, somewhat "hesitant, not daring to do". The reason given by the units is the merger of administrative units, and the confusion of the commune and ward officials.

The flexibility between projects is also unclear and indecisive. Mr. Duoc cited the Binh Tien Road project (old District 6), which only needed to adjust the boundary, the technical documents remained unchanged, but the officials kept using the excuse of waiting for approval, causing the project to stall. If the officials dared to do it and take responsibility, the project would be accelerated.

Or the National Highway 13 project has not yet started; National Highway 22 through Cu Chi, Tay Ninh province has been vigorously clearing the land but the city's communes and wards are still planning to approve compensation...

Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc requested that from now until the end of the year, localities must pay attention to promoting site clearance, paying special attention to traffic works including urban railways and highways.

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc asked officials to be flexible and dare to think and act to solve the city's congestion.

“I reiterate that we should focus on public investment and public investment disbursement, so that in the third and fourth quarters we can ensure a growth rate of 10.4%, achieving the growth target of 8.5%. At the same time, we need to remove difficulties for stalled projects. We should pay special attention to the flood prevention project worth more than VND10,000 billion that the Government has approved to remove,” Mr. Duoc requested.

The Chairman of the City People's Committee said that adding 1% to Ho Chi Minh City is very difficult, and to achieve it, the assigned public investment target must be completed.

In addition, communes, wards, and departments also focus on proposing investment projects for 2026 and the coming time, selecting key projects that need to be implemented immediately. At the same time, focus on completing the planning of the new Ho Chi Minh City to receive investment and welcome investors.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the city's estimated public investment capital demand in 2026 is VND156,936,605 billion. The estimated medium-term public investment plan for the 2026-2030 period is VND331,967,862 billion.

In the first 8 months of the year, the socio-economic picture of Ho Chi Minh City is assessed to have many bright colors, continuing to play the most important growth role of the country.

The city's budget revenue reached nearly VND525 trillion, reaching 78.7% of the estimate assigned by the Central Government and 75.8% of the estimate assigned by the City People's Council, an increase of nearly 16% over the same period. Mr. Duoc said that part of this was due to many projects having their obstacles removed, resources being freed up, and creating investor confidence.

After 2 months, the city's public investment disbursement only increased by a few percent.

Thanks to that, foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction increased by 58% over the same period, reaching nearly 6.891 billion USD.

Over the past 8 months, many large investors from the world and the country have come to the city and returned to the city to discuss investment in large-scale projects from technology, infrastructure, big data... In particular, the city has just successfully hosted tourism events, including the TPO forum, which was highly appreciated by international visitors. Through this event, international friends learned about Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City and its special traditional culture.

Resolutely implementing the 8.5% growth target
To achieve the growth target in 2025, the City People's Committee requested departments, branches, wards and communes to mobilize and unleash social investment resources in the area, to reach about 780 trillion VND; the industrial production index in 2025 is estimated to increase by 10.2%.
Total retail sales of goods in 2025 will reach VND 1,004,553 billion, an increase of 16.2% compared to 2024.
Export turnover is about 95.8 billion USD, import turnover in 2025 is estimated to reach 98.2 billion USD.
Strive to reach 8.5 - 10 million international visitors, 45 - 50 million domestic visitors and total tourism revenue of about 260 - 290 trillion VND.
The city's estimated budget revenue for the whole year of 2025 is 751,121 billion VND and the expected state budget revenue in the area in the period of 2026-2030 is 4,700,596 billion VND, equal to 143% compared to the estimated implementation in the period of 2021 - 2025.

Ha Linh

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/vi-sao-tp-hcm-giai-ngan-dau-tu-cong-cham-chap-ar964550.html