HCM City aims for higher efficiency of ODA-funded projects

The drawbacks reportedly stemmed from both objective and subjective causes involving signing procedures and consulting costs. 

VietnamPlus recently reported that HCMC is currently rolling out 13 projects, utilizing nearly VND87 trillion in ODA capital. Some VND6 trillion in ODA capital is expected to be allocated this year. 

Metro lines No. 1 (Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien line) and No. 2 (Ben Thanh-Tham Luong line) are ODA-funded projects in need of support from ministries and central agencies. 

The execution of ODA-funded projects has revealed inadequacies in terms of legal issues, as the local legal framework for ODA capital use and management is not synced with regulations of donors, resulting in much time being spent on resolving discrepancies, according to the city government.  

Regarding the bidding for general contracts, Vietnam requires that the contract price not include price slide and backup costs, but this does not match international rules.

With major projects, the longer it takes to complete a project, the greater the disputes become. 

Some project management units are not capable of fulfilling their duties; they assign tasks to consultants but do not carefully check execution. Besides this, site clearance and compensation efforts are making slow progress, as are ODA capital disbursements. These issues have affected the progress of completion and capital pledges of donors. 

Some ODA-funded projects that have been completed and put into operation include the environmental sanitation projects in the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe and Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi-Te (phase one) basins, the East-West highway and the Saigon bridge expansion.