Vice-chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc has asked for the removal of bottlenecks in an exhibition center project in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area in Thu Duc City and the completion of procedures to resume its construction this month.

At a recent meeting, the official made the request to remove difficulties of the project, which has been at a standstill for seven years, causing the waste of billions of Vietnamese dong. (VND1 billion = US$42,354)

He assigned the Management Board of Industrial and Civil Engineering Construction and Investment Projects of Ho Chi Minh City, the investor of the exhibition center, to join hands with relevant agencies to review bidding dossiers for it and handle obstacles.

They will also work with Sacombank to deal with the VND42.8 billion ($1.8 million) offered to contractors in advance.

Vice-chairman Duc also required disbursing at least 95 percent of the capital allocated to the project this year.

Meanwhile, the municipal Department of Construction will be responsible for appraising the workload and the rising costs of the project and reporting issues beyond its jurisdiction to the People’s Committee.

The official also asked the Department of Planning and Architecture to review and appraise the PTV31 package to collect data, compose and print books, edit and design panels, websites and instructions, among others, and submit the results to the People’s Committee for approval prior to Monday next week. 

Obstacles to the aluminum glass package worth VND107 billion ($4.5 million) have hindered the entire project as the contractor of the package did not cooperate with the investor, said Nguyen Van Truong, deputy director of the Management Board of Industrial and Civil Engineering Construction and Investment Projects of Ho Chi Minh City.

Since the Management Board of Industrial and Civil Engineering Construction and Investment Projects of Ho Chi Minh City took over the project in 2022, it has invited contractors to conclude appendices of a contract for the project to resume work on it.

However, only the contractor of the aluminum glass package disagreed with the investor.

Despite proposals to change the purpose of the project, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Architecture suggested retaining it owing to its importance to the city’s architecture planning exhibition and organization of specialized events.

Ho Chi Minh City commenced the planning exhibition center project with an investment of VND800 billion ($33.9 million) on the bank of the Saigon River in the first quarter of 2013 and expected to complete it in 2015.

The city later delayed the planned completion time of the project to 2016 before putting it on hold for over seven years.

Many components at the project have deteriorated after a long pause.

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