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City aims to curb inflation, improve road safety
The city's two major tasks from now to the year end will be controlling inflation and improving traffic infrastructure with an aim to reduce accidents, according to HCM City authorities.
Although the numbers of road accidents and serious traffic jams had declined compared to last year, the problem still remained, Tran Quang Phuong, director of the city's Department of Transport, said.
As of April 2010, there have been 80 traffic accidents, killing 58 and injuring 40 people, a drop of 17 accidents, 19 deaths and 11 injuries compared to 2009.
But the figures reflect an increase of 29 accidents, 15 deaths and 23 injuries compared to March.
Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the city People's Committee, said that improving the traffic infrastructure was the main task from May to the year end, especially after the opening of Can Tho Bridge in Can Tho City and Ham Luong Bridge in Ben Tre Province, as the traffic load between the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta and the city is expected to soar.
The city committee has been looking for solutions to further develop traffic infrastructure.
Nguyen Trong Hoa, director of the city's Institute of Research and Development, said the city would seek solutions based on experiences of other cities in the region and around the world.
He said the project to build Sai Gon Bridge 2 should seek capital from the State rather than from sources via the proposed use of a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model.
Nguyen Thanh Tai, permanent deputy-chairman of the HCM City People's Committee, said attracting more sources of capital would require that the city reform or cut the number of administrative procedures.
Inflation watchdog
In addition to investing in developing infrastructure, the city needs to pay attention to stabilising the macro-economy, preventing inflation and ensuring sustainable economic growth at about 11 per cent this year.
Mobilised capital for the banks has so far this year reached nearly VND621 trillion (US$32.7 billion), an increase of 25.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, total bank loans have reached VND565.3 trillion ($29.7 billion), a year-on-year surge of 32.8 per cent.
However, the amount of capital for doing business and manufacturing is still insufficient as both deposit and lending interest rates remain very high.
The director of the State Bank's HCM City branch, Ho Huu Hanh, said that it would be difficult to lower the lending interest rate to below 12 per cent per year in accordance with Government proposals.
Hanh explained that it takes quite a long time to lower the lending interest rate since many banks had mobilised capital with high deposit interest rates.
The Consumer Price Index in April increased by 4.02 per cent compared to the end of last year, caused by an increase in prices of electricity, water, gasoline, materials and transportation.
In order to curb inflation, the city plans to stabilise prices for essential goods as soon as possible, according to city authorities.
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