General Secretary and President To Lam: The Mercedes project extension issue is absurd

General Secretary and President To Lam speaks at a working session with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee - Photo: SGGP

Mechanism and policy problems "hinder" development

Speaking at a working session with General Secretary and President To Lam (afternoon of August 17), Mr. Phan Van Mai pointed out many shortcomings and limitations of a number of current laws and respectfully requested: "The General Secretary and President directs the Government Party Committee and the National Assembly Party Delegation to review and amend the law, following the motto of one law amending many laws to remove obstacles for localities."

According to Mr. Mai, currently some regulations in the Law on Urban Planning, Law on Public Investment, Law on Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Law on Budget... are inadequate and need to be amended.

If there is a special meeting to study and fix this problem early from now until the end of the year, many problems will be resolved.

The law amendment, Mr. Mai suggested, must be linked to stronger decentralization and delegation of power to localities. In particular, coordination in resolving cases in the area must be faster and more effective.

"There are currently projects that are asking for approval and extension of investment policies, but it takes a long time to resolve. If the law is removed, public investment projects, public-private investment projects, social housing projects, and commercial housing projects will be removed, promoting the development of the real estate market," said Mr. Mai.

There must be policies to remove them.

The head of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee shared a specific problem regarding the joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Group AG (MBG AG) and Saigon Transport Mechanical Corporation (Samco).

According to regulations, this project will expire in 2025 after 30 years of joint venture. Mercedes-Benz Group AG has requested a 5-year extension, but due to regulations, the land must be reclaimed and rearranged when the joint venture expires. Therefore, although it seems reasonable, Ho Chi Minh City is still struggling to resolve the issue.

"We will probably spend 5 years struggling. This is a problem that needs to be solved, not just to collect that much budget, but also to solve it later for other projects," Mr. Mai suggested.

In the conclusion, General Secretary and President To Lam said that through the meeting, he personally learned many practical issues, pressing and complicated matters. For example, the absurdity in the Mercedes joint venture was "unacceptable".

General Secretary and President To Lam said: "Localities really hope to have automobile projects because on average, an automobile project contributes at least 5,000 billion VND to the local budget per year. Whoever has two automobile projects will earn tens of thousands of billions, like Ninh Binh with that project, which is already 10,000 billion VND.

Now, when entering the market, the license expires, then is revoked, then renewed from the beginning. I don't know what these regulations are. I will also contribute to talking about these things."

General Secretary and President To Lam said that the problems discovered by Ho Chi Minh City will continue to be studied with relevant agencies to have appropriate policies to resolve.

More than 2 years after submitting the application, the license extension has not been granted yet.

The Mercedes-Benz automobile assembly plant project on Quang Trung Street (Ward 8, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City) is a joint venture project between Mercedes-Benz Group AG (MBG AG) and Saigon Transport Mechanical Corporation (Samco).

In April 1995, Mercedes Company (hereinafter referred to as the company) was licensed to operate in Vietnam, with the project completion date being April 14, 2025.

Therefore, in September 2021, the company sent a document requesting to extend the project's operating period by 5 years, until April 2030.

Although the Ho Chi Minh City government has approved the policy of extending the land lease term, the procedures have not yet been completed.

In March 2024, the company continued to send documents to the Prime Minister and many ministries and branches, proposing to remove obstacles.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tong-bi-thu-chu-tich-nuoc-to-lam-vuong-mac-gia-han-du-an-mercedes-la-vo-ly-20240818080921447.htm