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If the potentials and strengths can help Ho Chi Minh City develop smoothly, the obstacles and bottlenecks that have existed for a long time and are evident through the Covid-19 pandemic can be an obstacle to slow down or even pull back the city’s growth. According to experts, if the city turns current bottlenecks into resources and creative energy, HCMC will make steady and steady progress.
Economist Huynh Thanh Dien from Nguyen Tat Thanh University commented that the bottlenecks of Ho Chi Minh City are licensing large investment projects and disbursement of infrastructure investment projects is too slow. Similarly, many projects and stimulus programs have been delayed for a long time without new alternative programs, many civil servants work without clear motivation, Dr. Huynh Thanh Dien said. He assessed that, if the city can remove these bottlenecks, its gross regional domestic product will increase by at least 10 percent.
Currently, hundreds of projects in Ho Chi Minh City are slow to implement, negatively affecting the urban beauty, wasting land resources, and wasting development resources. Even many projects are in a state of planning lasting for decades, suspended projects such as the construction project of Binh Quoi - Thanh Da urban area in Binh Thanh District, Northwest urban area, Safari project in Cu Chi District caused difficulties for dwellers.
The district proposed that Ho Chi Minh City and all levels soon complete legal documents in order to soon call for investment in the Safari project, Northwest urban area so that these projects can be put into operation for the overall development of the city, said Chairman of the Cu Chi District People's Committee Pham Thi Thanh Hien.
From their reality, administrations in districts also propose mechanisms and policies to overcome obstacles for development acceleration. Binh Tan District has a large population whereas its infrastructure and traffic have not met actual needs and investment resources are limited. Therefore, Vice Chairwoman of Binh Tan District People's Committee Le Thi Ngoc Dung suggested that Ho Chi Minh City have the policy to implement important projects in the district, including investment projects to build new inner ring roads and ring roads 2 from National Highway 1 to Nguyen Van Linh Street to facilitate the district’s socio-economic development.
In respect of the specific mechanism for Thu Duc City, Chairman of Thu Duc City People's Committee Hoang Tung said that when establishing Thu Duc City, administrations all wanted the newly-established city will make good for HCMC's economy. But after the first year, the new city focused on preventing the Covid-19 epidemic without doing anything for HCMC.
According to Mr. Hoang Tung, this is a very regrettable thing. The financial budget is also a very important issue for Thu Duc City. The balance in the past year of Thu Duc City is at a very worrying level, only about VND200 billion. If the balance is maintained at this level, after 5 years, Thu Duc city can only build three high schools, which is only the construction cost alone, not including the cost of compensation for site clearance. From this reality, the Chairman of Thu Duc People's Committee hoped that Ho Chi Minh City administrations, along with ministries, branches and the central government will soon have specific mechanisms and policies to remove difficulties for the locality, turning Thu Duc City into a real center as orientation.
Enterprises are the backbone of the economy; therefore, to help businesses and laborers to feel secure, Head of the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Industrial and Export Processing Zones (Hepza) Hua Quoc Hung, said that the city's investment stimulus programs and short-term and long-term support solutions for businesses and policies play an important role. Appropriate accommodation for employees is also vital, Mr. Hung thus suggested that Ho Chi Minh City have a plan to review the land fund to build worker dormitories to support laborers.
For areas with a large number of workers, housing problems and grassroots human resource problems also need to be addressed. In Binh Chanh District, according to statistics by the end of 2021, the district's population is over 800,000 people. The large and rapidly increasing population puts great pressure on infrastructure and management. Therefore, the district is looking forward to solving problems in policy, infrastructure investment and increasing the number of part-time staff according to the actual population.
Similarly, the population in Binh Tan district is now over 800,000 people, even in some districts with more than 100,000 people. For the district’s growth in the coming time, Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Dung, Vice Chairwoman of Binh Tan District People's Committee, suggested that Ho Chi Minh City consider supplementing the planning and construction of housing areas for low-income people, especially accommodation for workers in industrial zones as well as mobilize social resources to develop a network of high-quality medical works.
