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At the meeting |
Editor-in-Chief of Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper Tang Huu Phong made the statement at a supervision session of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council on the implementation of social housing projects in the city between 2016 and 2025 chaired by Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Council Nguyen Van Dung.
According to the Management Board of Exporting Processing and Industrial Zones in Ho Chi Minh City (HEPZA), from 2016 up to now, the planned land fund for the building of worker accommodation in the boundaries of export processing zones (EPZ) and industrial parks (IP) only has three remaining lots including KTX-1 and KTX-2 at Tan Thuan EPZ and 85A4 at Linh Trung 2 EPZ.
The Management Board of Saigon Hi-Tech Park also said that in 2004, the City People's Committee allocated about 32 hectares of land for the park to build housing for experts and workers in Long Thanh My Ward in District 9 which is now Thu Duc City. After that, the project's scale was adjusted down by the competent authority to 20.17 hectares.
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Editor-in-Chief of Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper Tang Huu Phong speaks at the meeting. |
By 2014, the city People's Committee issued an official dispatch saying that the land would be used to build housing for employees of the High-Tech Park; however, until now, the construction project has not been carried out as planned. The Hi-Tech Park Management Board has proposed stopping the construction of the project with budget capital but social contributions.
Meanwhile, social housing projects and worker accommodation projects in land plots planned in residential areas adjacent to industrial parks have been behind schedule in recent times, due to site clearance and compensation-related problems and legal issues of land allocation and lease.
At the monitoring session, Editor-in-Chief of SGGP Newspaper Tang Huu Phong disclosed that the need for social housing for workers and laborers in Ho Chi Minh City is huge. Of these, through a survey on 96,517 workers, some 51,718 respondents revealed that they are in high need of social housing, accounting for 53.6 percent while 29,034 other respondents said that they wished to buy social housing accounting for 30.1 percent.
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A social housing project is in middle of construction |
According to Editor-in-Chief of SGGP Newspaper Tang Huu Phong, if departments and agencies worked together to remove barriers, the construction progress of these projects would be faster, meeting people's housing needs.
Regarding the opinion of currently high housing prices making it unafforable for many people in need, Head of the Department of Construction’s Housing and Real Estate Market Development Division Pham Dang Ho affirmed that people hardly buy social housing with their basic salary without other support policies such as preferential loans from the social policy bank or housing development fund.
He recommended that if the buyer still does not have enough money, they can consider the option of renting a social house. However, according to Mr. Pham Dang Ho, in reality, people are not interested in renting a house because all people want to own a house.
Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Nguyen Van Dung requested the departments of Construction, Planning and Investment, Natural Resources and Environment, and Finance together to resolve construction-related problems. Furthermore, they must work with the management boards of the investment and construction project of the new urban area in the South of the City, the Saigon High-Tech Park, Hepza and related units, urge and support investors of projects to speed up progress; especially in compensation for site clearance, planning adjustment, investment procedures to ensure that the projects are complete as scheduled.
The Departments of Construction, Natural Resources-Environment and Finance are requested to have opinions on those who are eligible to rent and buy social houses as well as appraise and approve the rent and sale prices of social houses. In addition, they should work together to speed up the progress of issuing land use certificates for 672 social houses in the new urban area in Binh Chanh outlying district’s Binh Hung Commune.
At the same time, these bodies must pay attention to state management of projects, ensuring that investors fully comply with regulations on construction quality, legality, and fire prevention.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dung also requested units to promptly submit their proposals to solve problems to the city People's Committee.
