On August 10, in Ho Chi Minh City, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - Chairman of the Southeast Regional Coordination Council (SECC) chaired the fourth meeting of the Regional Coordination Council.

Ho Chi Minh City aims to build 510km of urban railway

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that, implementing Conclusion 49 of the Politburo on the orientation of developing Vietnam's railway transport to 2030, with a vision to 2045, the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee has established a Working Group to develop the City's urban railway development project, inviting a consulting team of domestic and foreign experts to give comments on this project.

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai speaks at the meeting. Photo: Ngo Tung.

The project aims to build an additional 183km of urban railway by 2030. By 2045, the city will have an additional 168km, bringing the total urban railway to 352km. By 2060, the urban railway network of Ho Chi Minh City will be completed with a total length of 510km, with public transport capacity accounting for 50-60%.

To deploy this urban railway system, Mr. Mai acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh City identified domestic capital and public investment as the main sources. In particular, the city identified capital needs with the following targets: By 2035, Ho Chi Minh City needs about 36 billion USD, by 2045 it needs 33 billion USD, and by 2060 it needs 48 billion USD.

According to Mr. Mai, this amount is mobilized through the city's public investment sources by annual arrangement, increasing revenue, saving expenditure; source from land exploitation; source from central support through key projects; source from borrowing local government bonds and will be paid from revenue sources from the city budget.

“To implement this project, Ho Chi Minh City recommends that there should be an outstanding mechanism in project development, site clearance, capital mobilization and management. If there is no outstanding mechanism and the implementation follows the public investment process, the city will take 20 years to build 20km of Metro Line 1, so it will take centuries to build 500km,” Mr. Mai said.

Find separate policies to develop Moc Bai Economic Zone

Chairman of Tay Ninh Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Ngoc said that the locality has actively coordinated with localities in the region to implement tasks assigned by the Regional Council and has so far basically completed them.

Chairman of Tay Ninh Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Ngoc informed about the implementation of key projects in the area.

Regarding the tasks of coordinating with Ho Chi Minh City and ministries and branches, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Ngoc expressed that Tay Ninh province especially thanks the Prime Minister for his determination to approve the investment policy for the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway on August 2. "Immediately after the Prime Minister approved the policy, although the document had not yet reached the province, the locality met with the branches and developed a very specific plan to strive to implement the Component 4 project, complete compensation and site clearance for handover before April 30, 2025 to speed up the implementation progress of this project," Mr. Ngoc informed.

Also according to the Chairman of Tay Ninh Provincial People's Committee, regarding the project to develop Moc Bai Economic Zone in the direction of urban industry - services associated with national defense - security, up to now, with the active support of ministries and branches, the Provincial People's Committee has completed the general planning and submitted it to the Prime Minister on June 28.

To proactively implement this master plan after the Prime Minister approves it, Mr. Ngoc recommends that the Prime Minister, in his role as Chairman of the Regional Council, give the province the policy to work with ministries and branches to study specific mechanisms and policies for this economic zone so that they can be implemented to create development momentum for the zone when the master plan is approved.

Striving to start construction of Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway on April 30, 2025

In his concluding remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh welcomed the efforts of the members of the Regional Coordination Council and relevant ministries, branches and localities to complete three important tasks after the third conference.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the conference. Photo: Ngo Tung.

In addition, the Prime Minister also pointed out that the development process of the Southeast region in recent times still faces a number of limitations and difficulties, including slow transformation of the growth model, limited economic resilience, and slowing growth momentum of the region. The head of the Government acknowledged that the limitations partly come from objective reasons, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic locomotive of Ho Chi Minh City was severely affected and needed time to recover.

From there, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities, according to their functions, tasks and powers, to review the set goals and targets and make drastic efforts to complete them, contributing to the goal of promoting growth, stabilizing the macro economy, controlling inflation, ensuring major balances...

Assigning specific tasks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested the assigned ministries, branches and localities to urgently complete research tasks for regional and inter-regional projects, including: International Financial Center Project in Ho Chi Minh City, Free Trade Center in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, and connecting road systems.

The Prime Minister assigned Ho Chi Minh City to preside over and submit outstanding policy mechanisms under the authority of the National Assembly for the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 Project at the Council's meeting next November.

The localities of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, and Binh Phuoc urgently complete the next procedures for the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai, Chon Thanh - Gia Nghia, and Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh expressways, striving to start construction on April 30, 2025.

Ngo Tung