HCM City (VNS/VNA) - HCM City will prioritiseinvestment in road infrastructure if it receives permission to raise the budgetrevenue-retention ratio, according to the municipal  Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Speaking at a recent meeting in the city, Nhan said that"it would take 150 years to have enough roads for the city’s trafficactivities" unless the city speeds up progress of road projects andinvests more in transport and roads.

Traffic is the most pressing problem as there is an increaseof one million motorcycles every five years in HCM City, leading to worseningcongestion unless the busy roads are expanded and more roads are built.

"The rate of land allocated for transport remains toolow," he said, adding that a city’s average road length around the worldis at least 10km per sq.km, while HCM City will have only 2.1km per sq.km bythe end of 2020.

"Another problem is a lack of housing," he said."The average housing area of the city is 20 sq.m per person, while thenational average is 24 sq.m.

In addition, the city also faces other problems such asflooding, sea-level rise, and ground subsidence, according to Nhan.

Singapore plans to spend 100 billion USD over the next 50years to build dykes and drainage systems to prevent flooding.

HCM City does not have that much money but it will still needto earmark a certain amount of budget to tackle flooding which is threateningthe lives of millions of people, he noted.

HCM City recently asked for permission to raise the budgetrevenue retention ratio to 24 percent in the 2021-2025 period, and 33 percentin the 2026-2030 period, the ratio granted to the city back in 2003.

The new ratio is considered to be sufficient for the city toensure its stable development and affirm its role as the nation’s economic locomotive,which then in turn, would enable the city to contribute more to the nationalbudget.

With only 9 percent of Vietnam’s total population, HCM Citycontributes 24 percent of the country’s GDP and 27 percent of the nationalbudget, meaning each resident in the city is contributing three times as muchas those in other localities, according to Nhan.

However, the city only gets to keep 18 percent of its annualbudget collection, which hampers infrastructure investment and development, hesaid.

HCM City currently has the lowest budget retention rate ofall cities in the world, and this should change.

For the 2016-2020 period, the city has been allowed to keepjust 18 percent of its annual revenues, with the rest having to submit to thenational budget.

HCM City has a population of 13 million people includingmigrants.

The city is among the 20 percent of localities in Vietnamwhich can cover its own expenditures while contributing to the national coffer.

For many years, the city has been the country’s largestmoney-maker and assigned the highest state budget collection target.

Last year, HCM City's budget collection topped 378 trillion VND(16.3 billion USD), up 8.6 percent compared to 2017.

In 2019, the southern metropolis is expected to make 412trillion VND, or 27 percent of the national figure.

The latest estimation is 3.3 percent higher than thetarget./.