Upgrading old buildings and relocating families living near canals are among the major projects that HCM City aims to carry out in the short term, according to city authorities.

The Thu Thiem Peninsula in District 2 in HCM City. The city will upgrade old buildings and relocate households living near canals to improve its look. 

The city recently held a seminar on collaboration between investors and banks in so-called breakthrough programmes.

Participating banks have signed loan agreements for eight projects, worth a total of VND26 trillion (US$1.1 billion) under a public-private partnership (PPP) investment mode.

The projects include a North-South road worth VND18 trillion and Nguyen Tat Thanh Street worth VND4.6 trillion.

The chairman of the city People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said the loans for the eight projects had created a push for future projects, as the city has a limited local budget.

More businesses are expected to invest under the PPP mode, he said.

Around 153 projects have been carried out under the PPP mode in HCM City, with total investment of VND451 trillion, of which 23 projects worth a total of VND71 trillion have been completed, and another 130 projects worth VND380 trillion are underway.

Though the number of projects under the PPP mode only accounted for 5 per cent of the total of public-invested projects, the amount of investment was 51 times higher than total public investment during the 2011-15 period, he added.

Pham Phu Quoc, director of the HCM City Finance and Investment State-owned Company (HFIC), said that HFIC had sponsored 152 infrastructure projects in the city, valued at a combined VND25 trillion.

It has also called for VND26.8 trillion of local government bonds, he added.

Upgrading old buildings

Upgrading old buildings and building new ones are part of the city’s modernisation plan.

At least 474 old buildings were built before 1975. Since the beginning of 2016, 1,592 households in four old buildings have been relocated.

The city has asked the People’s Committee to take charge of planning upgrades of old buildings and construction of new buildings.

The committee will be tasked with making decisions on relocating residents who live near canals to other areas and upgrading infrastructure.

To effectively handle the “breakthrough” programmes that are key to the city’s development during the 2016-20 period, the city needs a total of VND850 trillion in funds. Sixty per cent of that total would be for anti-flooding, transport and infrastructure-related projects. 

VNS