HCM City Mayor Phan Van Mai

The draft will be submitted to the National Assembly at its year-end session.

The HCM City People’s Council last week discussed the supervision of the implementation of the Resolution 54 on the special mechanism and policies for the city.

Mai said the resolution gives HCM City the opportunity to make great development. However, many complicated issues have arisen during the implementation and the effects are still below expectations. The implementation, to some extent, has not been carried out drastically.

“The municipal authorities are reviewing the implementation of Resolution 54, which serves as a foundation and premise to propose a new resolution to replace Resolution 54 to ensure the continuity of the special mechanism and suitability to the new circumstances,” he said.

The city has set up a steering committee and editorial board which are in charge of review the implementation of Resolution 54 and drafting a new resolution. The draft has been completed and it would be open for opinion collection in mid-July and would be submitted to the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee for approval. After that, it would be submitted to the Politburo and to the NA for approval at its year-end session.

According to Mai, the draft’s major issue is the decentralization mechanism for HCM City. This will allow the municipal authorities not to have to seek permissions from the central government when implementing the contents of the resolution. There is a chapter on the special mechanism and policies for Thu Duc City.

Some delegates said there are still many outstanding problems and asked to thoroughly consider the problems so as to not repeat them in the new resolution. Mai said that the compilation team will consider the opinions of the delegates during the drafting and it will consult relevant agencies and people before submitting to the NA.

Resolution 54 on the special mechanism and policies for HCM City was ratified by the National Assembly in November 2017 and it has been implemented on a trial basis for five years. The trial will finish this November and HCM City needs a new resolution.

Ho Van