The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City decided to stop the Symphony, Music and Dance Theater in Thu Thiem New Urban Area with an investment of more than 1,508 billion VND to give priority to social security issues and stimulate the development of industries.
In a report to the Economic and Budget Committee of the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City, the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City said that, through the review from 2015 to now, there are 678 projects that have been delayed in implementation, of which 2 projects will stop investing, including: project of Symphony, Music and Dance Theater in Thu Thiem New Urban Area (capital of more than 1,500 billion VND) and the project of building a road connecting Cat Lai port to Ring Road 2 (invested capital of more than 351 billion VND) copper).
The project of a symphony, music and dance theater was established in 1993. In 1999, Ho Chi Minh City intended to build at 23 Le Duan (District 1). However, this site is considered unsuitable for construction of art works.
The land is expected to build the Symphony, Music and Dance Theater in Thu Thiem New Urban Area. Photo: Pham Nguyen.
In 2012, Ho Chi Minh City decided to restart the construction of the theater, choosing a location in September 23 Park. The theater is expected to have a total investment of nearly VND 2,200 billion, 1.2 hectares wide, including 2 main auditoriums with capacity of 1,700 seats; main direction overlooking Ben Thanh market. The work is limited by the roads Ton That Tung, Le Lai and Pham Ngu Lao – the golden land of Ho Chi Minh City. However, this policy of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City continues to face many mixed opinions.
In August 2017, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City decided to choose Thu Thiem area (Thu Duc City) as the location to build the theater. On October 8, 2017, the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City held an extraordinary session, approving the policy of building a symphony, music and dance theater.
The project has a total investment of more than VND 1,508 billion, is expected to start construction in 2018 and complete in 2022, the capital source from the HCMC budget is the money from the auction of land at 23 Le Duan (District 1). After that, the project investor proposed to increase the total project investment to 1,988 billion VND and adjust the implementation time from 2018 to 2024.
The symphony, music and dance theater in Thu Thiem New Urban Area has a scale of 1,700 seats, including a large 1,200-seat auditorium and a 500-seat small auditorium. At the end of 2021, the investor awarded 2 second prizes (without first prize) to 2 units participating in the competition for ideas on architectural design plans for the theater.
Up to this point, the project has not had a decision to approve the project, there has been no decision to approve the contractor selection plan.
The design was awarded the Second Prize of the Symphony, Music and Dance Theater in Thu Thiem New Urban Area.
Regarding the cause of the delay, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City said that the progress of organizing the contest to select the architectural design plan of the project was slow due to the time of appraisal and comments from relevant departments, agencies and units for the design task. plans, plans and estimates for the organization of prolonged recruitment examinations. In addition, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic made the start time of organizing the competition for architectural design projects slower than expected.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Civil and Industrial Investment Project Management Board, this project has not yet allocated capital in the medium-term public investment plan 2021-2025. According to this Board, in terms of the need to perfect social and cultural institutions, a theater is needed. However, in the current context, especially the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, investment in this project has not been considered, but priority is given to social security issues and stimulating industries to develop.
Source: CafeBiz
