Symposium on International Municipal Finances

A symposium on the Comparative Study of Municipal Finance in Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai and Jakarta was opened in Ho Chi Minh City on October 09, 2006 under the chairmanship of the Economics Research Institute of Ho Chi Minh City and the sponsorship of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

 

All three cities of Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai and Jakarta created two thirds of the budgets by private sources. In 2004, a total of 51 per cent of regular incomes of Ho Chi Minh City came from selling houses and land use rights. Under the general evaluation, Ho Chi Minh City will fully exploit this source of incomes in a short period of time. Shanghai also has sources of incomes from selling assets and invisible assets but the city has a more stable source of incomes from collecting fees, utility charges and business taxes. Only sources of incomes of Jakarta are considered the most stable as they are collected from vehicle taxes and assets taxes (sales taxes of hotels and restaurants).

 

From collected comparative figures, the researching group said the receipts and expenditures never get balanced. The expenditures for urban purposes need to be transparent and reliable.

 

At present, Ho Chi Minh City Shanghai and Jakarta are trying to make up for the budget deficit by applying new mechanisms like calling private investment in urban infrastructure system. The researchers proposed Ho Chi Minh City to improve transparency, accountability and efficiency of urban expenditures on long-termed goals to create more values for the society. The citizens will have more benefits from their contributions to the municipal budgets.