HCM City (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister PhamBinh Minh on June 29 urged Ho Chi Minh City to ask for the facilitation of the implementation of Metro Line No. 1 project in order toincrease public disbursement for the locality.
At a working session with the municipal People’s Committee,Minh said foreign experts of the project are now unable to return to Vietnamdue to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As for issues regarding other ODA projects, theofficial said relevant ministries and HCM City need to race against time tobenefit from ODA incentives.
Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the HCM City People’sCommittee, said the locality has capacity for ODA disbursement that, however,is now slow due to bottlenecks from many agencies, citing the issue regardingthe JPY-VND rate in the above-said project.
The committee reported that the city has nineODA projects with total investment capital amounting to nearly 123 trillion VND(5.28 million USD), including 102 trillion VND worth of ODA.
In the first six months of this year, only one fifth of thecapital has been disbursed, it said./.