HCM City will establish an agency to
manage public housing development in the hope of resolving a pressing issue that
has plagued the city for long.

The
Department of Construction is working on the issue and awaiting opinions from
related agencies. It will submit a draft to the city government for approval in
October.

The
city’s programmes for public housing have suffered due to lack of clear
strategies and poor management in the past.

Currently the department co-ordinates public housing programmes, which however
involve several other agencies like the Departments of Zoning and Architecture,
Finance, Planning and Investment, and Natural Resources and Environment.

Since
poor co-ordination has been a bane, setting up a dedicated agency to manage
public housing is an agent need, the department said.

The new
agency will be tasked with raising funds for public housing and providing
low-income people access to such housing.

Lack of funds

Though
the city government encourages and offers incentives for investment in public
housing, the department said, funds remain a problem.

The city
encourages the private sector to invest in low-income housing, offering many
incentives like tax breaks and increasing floor area ratio — or the ratio of
building to land — by 50 per cent, but these do not appear lucrative enough to
attract investors.

The city
is barely able to fund construction of housing for its officials and workers.

However,
last month it broke ground for two public housing projects in Tan Hung Thuan
Ward in District 12 and District 7.

Another
25 apartment projects it has approved are expected to provide more than 4,500
units to low-income people.

Several
of them will be finished by 2013.

Three
others, in Districts 10, Go Vap, and Thu Duc, are expected to break ground this
year.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News