Ho Chi Minh City wants to keep a specific mechanism that gives it more autonomy once the pilot period finishes this year.
According to Resolution 54 enacted by the National Assembly (NA), Vietnam’s economic powerhouse HCMC was granted further autonomous decision-making power in November 2017 to assist it to flourish to its full potential.
The city can raise and add additional fees and charges to regulate its residents’ behavior and increase budget revenue under the resolution, which is in effect from January 2018 to December 2022. It can also change its tax collection policy, raise the pay of cadres and civil servants, and decide on land-use changes for farmland.
“The trial term is too short for the initiative to have a big impact,” Deputy Chairman Vo Van Hoan of the city said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Until now, the city has not fully utilized the mechanism, resulting in lower budget revenue than anticipated.
According to Hoan, HCMC has a “significant” demand for investment and development, but financial resources are limited.
In the year 2021-2025, the central government approved a public investment capital of more than VND140 trillion ($6 billion) for the city.
“The funds are only sufficient for projects that were already approved for the 2016-2020 period. No initiatives have been funded during the current time “he stated
Hoan said the city is working on a proposal to make draft amendments to the resolution, in which the city requested long-term autonomy beyond the five-year pilot phase from the parliament.
The city seeks its own mechanisms in areas such as investment, finance and budget administration, urban area development, environmental protection, decentralization, and a separate system for Thu Duc City.
The proposal is scheduled to be submitted to the NA for consideration before the end of this year.
At the ceremony, economist Tran Du Lich, a member of the Government Advisory Group, said that as part of decentralization, ministries and the central government should only act as inspectors when it comes to construction projects, giving cities more power to make decisions on their own to avoid lengthy administrative procedures.
HCMC still has a lot of work to do, according to to Tran Hoang Ngan, head of the municipal Institute of Development and Research, who indicated last month that the city may not have used half of the mechanisms provided by the resolution.
“Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city has not been able to fully utilize the resolution. It will take two more years to complete a more comprehensive examination “he stated
The problems that have not been handled, according to Ngan, are primarily “due to the complicated legal procedures that apply across the country, not only in HCMC,” such as earnings from the equitization of state-owned firms or proceeds from public property auctions.
As a result, he stated, the city should make proposals to the NA in order to have such barriers eliminated.
The economy of Vietnam in 2022 will grow more significantly than in the previous year, thanks to preferential policies for economic recovery, new-generation FTAs, and robust FDI inflow, among others. Since the beginning of 2022, the Government has set two goals: protecting people’s health while preparing a state budget for 2022 and the next three years. These targets aim to strengthen the stability of Vietnam’s society and economy.
Source : VnExpress
