Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the meeting (Source: VNA) Chairing a meeting with representatives from relevant Ministries and localitiesnationwide on December 7 in Hanoi, the PM urged all localities to soon devisespecific policies on social housing development, stressing that the work is theresponsibility of the State, the society and people.
Successful social housing development modelsshould be multiplied across the country, he noted.
He particularly emphasised the need to develop low-costhousing for workers – an urgent problem today, and shared the Government’sworry about the issue when 1.5 million workers, especially those working inindustrial parks (IPs), are in need of housing.
He said besides investment from the Statebudget, owners of IPs are also responsible for building houses for theirworkers.
The PM assigned the Ministry of Construction toissue legal documents to perfect a framework for social housing development,ensuring favourable procedures.
The Ministry of Finance and the State Bank wererequested to continue studying measures relating to credit, tax and interestsubsidy to fully tap medium-and long-term resources from the community, withthe aim of reducing investment from the State budget for the work.
The PM also underlined the necessity to improvethe quality of social housing and ensuring essential infrastructure fortransport, health, education and culture.
He also agreed on the proposal of the VietnamGeneral Confederation of Labour (VGCL) to effectively implement a pilot projecton building cultural and sport facilities in IPs, affirming that the State willsupport the VGCL in carrying out the project.
According to Minister of Construction Pham HongHa, a total of 3.7 million sq.m of social housing in urban areas and IPs havebeen put into use so far, benefiting nearly 500,000 low-income earners andworkers.
However, only 179 social housing projects(71,150 apartments) in urban areas and IPs have been implemented, fulfillingonly 28 percent of the target set for 2020.
Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate AssociationNguyen Tran Nam said the land planning - the decisive factor in the workhas yet to be on right track, expressing his hope that the Government willconsider providing another credit package to support low-income earners to buy houses.
According to statistics from the VGCL, about 2.8million people are working in IPs and export processing zones, with 1.7 millionof them in need of housing, while the number of houses at present meet only8-10 percent.
In his speech, Deputy PM Trin Dinh Dung stressedthe need to consider the building of social housing an investmentchannel in order to encourage enterprises’ further engagement. Heasked localities to outline yearly and medium-term plans to develop socialhousing on the basis of examining the affordability of labourers.
In his conclusion, PM Phuc said the Governmentwill issue a Directive on the development of social housing after themeeting.-VNA
VNA
