Concerned that the nearly 170 million USD project in Vinh City will not be completed on time

Before working with the Vinh City People's Committee, the monitoring delegation of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation directly surveyed the regulating lake project in Hung Loc commune. Photo: Minh Chi

Currently, Vinh city is implementing the project of Developing Medium-sized Cities in Vietnam - Vinh Sub-project using foreign loans through the World Bank.

The project was funded by a funding agreement signed in January 2012 with a total investment of over 168.484 million USD. Of which, the ODA loan from the World Bank is 98 million USD and the counterpart capital from the Central and local governments is 70.484 million USD.

Up to this point, the project has basically completed its components with a total disbursed ODA capital of 72.9 million USD, reaching 86%.

At the meeting with the Vinh City People's Committee, the monitoring delegation of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation focused on clarifying many issues regarding contractor capacity, quality of project items; some feedback from the people related to the project implementation process; effectiveness and impacts of the project; shortcomings in policies and laws in the management and use of foreign loans, etc.

In particular, through a survey of some construction items belonging to the environmental sanitation improvement component such as upgrading and renovating Vinh ancient citadel moat, building Hung Loc regulating lake, 72m road, etc., Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Tran Van Mao is worried that the project will have difficulty reaching the finish line as committed by the end of June 2018.

Because currently the volume of some construction items is still large, especially the problem of site clearance and the local counterpart capital to implement the project is still short of 50 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation as Head of the Supervisory Delegation. Photo: Minh Chi

Explaining the issues the monitoring delegation was concerned about, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Ha Thanh Tinh said that this was a large project, with more than 3,000 households affected and 1,000 graves relocated; at the same time, the initial phase of the project encountered many difficulties in terms of counterpart funding from the Central and local governments, so it was necessary to request an extension for the project.

However, Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh affirmed that, up to this point, the works and items of all 4 components of the project in the city have been cleared and currently there are only 5 households in Hung Nguyen district belonging to the 72m road project that have not yet cleared the land.

Currently, the city is coordinating with Hung Nguyen district to resolve the issue, while urging construction units to speed up progress. As for counterpart funds, the city has included them in the 2018 plan.

The provincial National Assembly delegation supervises the construction of the Vinh ancient citadel renovation project. Photo: Minh Chi

Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Nguyen Thanh Hien assessed the city's methodical direction and organization of the project implementation; especially the initial impacts and effectiveness that the project has brought about have improved the ecological environment, developed urban infrastructure, eliminated hunger, reduced poverty and created conditions to attract investment; improved state management capacity at all levels in general and the city's project management capacity in particular.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation recommended that the city focus on directing more strongly to ensure the project is completed on time; pay attention to overcoming the shortcomings and limitations that the Region 2 Audit has pointed out through auditing activities.

Vinh City is urging contractors to speed up the construction progress of the 72m road project. Photo: Minh Chi

The city also needs to develop regulations for the protection, maintenance and repair of project works; associated with propaganda to raise awareness and sense of responsibility of people in protecting works and protecting the landscape, green - clean - beautiful environment;...

On behalf of the delegation, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien also acknowledged a number of recommendations from the city related to policies and laws on management and use of foreign loans to report to the National Assembly and central ministries and branches for study, amendment and supplementation.