(From the organizer) Urban development in Ho Chi Minh City is simultaneously a highly bureaucratic and flexible process, a paradox born out of the city’s development at the nexus of state and market practice—what is now referred to as late socialism. Decentralized government agencies and foreign investors who bring capital and infrastructural expertise to the city negotiate a wide range of city making possibilities. The result is an urban landscape made piecemeal, with each urban development project built, more often than not, in defiance of city plans. While Ho Chi Minh City produces comprehensive infrastructure plans according to modern rational planning principles, each project is subsequently disassembled and disarticulated in order to deal with Vietnam’s decentralized governing regime and meet the demands of foreign investors, each of whom compete with one another and bring their specific and contrasting historical logics of development. Thus, … [Read more...]

Hanoi’s first elevated railway line running from Cat Linh to Ha Dong is going to miss its trial departure once again due to loan disbursement issues with the Chinese government that are holding back construction. The project was scheduled for a test run in September, but that was put back by a month. The latest date for a test run has not been set, and only a few workers have been seen on site in recent days. The project managers said parts of the track and barriers are running behind schedule. According to the main contractor, the state-owned China Railway Sixth Group Co., delayed disbursment of $250 million in official development assistance (ODA) from China, the last payment of a loan agreed on last year, has held up the project. Many subcontractors and suppliers have not been paid. Nguyen Ngoc Dong, vice minister of transport, said at a meeting last week that the ministry will ask the Chinese embassy in Hanoi to work with the contractor to avoid further … [Read more...]