World Bank will cut funding if Vinh City is slow in site clearance

(Baonghean.vn) -On the afternoon of November 8, a working group of the World Bank led by Ms. Phan Thi Phuong Huyen - Urban Expert, Head of the working group, had a working session with the Vinh City People's Committee on the Vinh urban development project.

The Vinh Urban Development Project, funded by the World Bank, includes four components: Improving services and upgrading basic infrastructure; improving environmental sanitation; building bridges and urban roads and enhancing technical infrastructure capacity. The total investment of the project is 152.922 million USD, equivalent to 3,180 billion VND, of which the World Bank loan is 98 million USD, and Vietnam's counterpart fund is 54.922 million USD.

Construction of renovation and upgrading of the northern canal - one of the components of the Vinh Urban Development project. Photo: Archive

The project is expected to be completed on December 30, 2017. Up to now, the total capital disbursed from World Bank loans is 42,712 million USD, reaching 51% of the total project capital; the project implementation time is 77%; the counterpart capital has provided 805 billion VND.

Currently, the project has completed a number of packages such as: Improving school sanitation; Building resettlement areas in Hamlet 5, Nghi Phu Commune; Upgrading and renovating Kenh Bac and is implementing the construction of 11 construction packages. Of which, 8 packages are behind schedule due to difficulties and obstacles in site clearance.

After reviewing the implementation progress, disbursement status, counterpart funds, and project indicators, the World Bank representative assessed that 5/8 packages still stuck with site clearance and land acquisition are unlikely to be completed on schedule as committed, such as: Package to upgrade and renovate the moat around Vinh Citadel; 3 packages to build Vinh - Hung Tay road and package to build the road connecting National Highway 46 to the Lam River road.

Overview of the working session.

The World Bank representative requested the Vinh City People's Committee and departments, offices, and authorities of wards and communes to speed up the site clearance progress and hand over the clean surface to the construction units in all bid packages by December 31, 2016 at the latest. If the progress is not met, funding for unfinished bid packages will be cut.

Discussing with the working group, Mr. Nguyen Hoai An - Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee agreed with the opinions and recommendations of the expert group. At the same time, he committed to completing the site clearance work by the end of 2016. Focusing on mobilizing the participation of the entire political system to accelerate the progress of Vinh urban development project on time as committed.

Vo Huyen