The Ho Chi Minh City municipal People’s Committee has suggestedcentral-level agencies consider exemptions and reductions of corporateand personal income taxes for the investors of private kindergartenprojects to help develop pre-schools in the city, the Saigon Times Dailyreported.

Speaking at the 13th meeting of the HCM Citymunicipal People’s Council which opened on June 14, Vice Chairman of thePeople’s Committee Hua Ngoc Thuan also called for agencies of higherlevels to apply land rent breaks for private kindergartens in districts2, 9, 8, 12, Binh Tan, Thu Duc and Tan Phu, and a 50% reduction for thekindergartens in Phu My Hung Urban Area in District 7 and otherdistricts.

Huynh Cong Hung, Head of the Social and CultureDepartment under the council, said that more than 172,000 children werestudying at private pre-schools in the city and about 10,000 of themwere taught at unlicensed kindergartens.

Hung said that thedepartment had agreed with the People’s Committee on preferentialtreatments for investors of the projects to encourage the development ofprivate pre-schools here in the city.

He said the city wouldgive priorities to kindergarten developments in industrial zones, exportprocessing zones, and the 11 wards which do not have publicpre-schools.

The Social and Culture Department also supportedmore kindergarten investors to access the loans whose interest rates arecovered by the State budget with maturity from seven to 15 yearsincluding two years of grace for all approved kindergarten projectsdepending on their scales.

The HCM City People’s Committee saidthe city would spend some 7.6 trillion VND (358 million USD) oneducation and training this year, accounting for 25.74 percent of thetotal spending and nearly 230 billion VND higher than initialestimation.-VNA