During his reception for German Ambassador to Vietnam Christian Berger in the city on June 27, Secretary Thang emphasised that the city welcomes all foreign investors, including those from Germany to engage in the second phase of the project in the southern city.
For his part, the German ambassador expressed his admiration for the significant achievements the city has made, particularly in relation to transport infrastructure.
He also called on Ho Chi Minh City and relevant ministries to facilitate foreign investment, including German investment, in a bid to accelerate the implementation of the project.
Metro Line 2, which is 11.33km long will link Ben Thanh station in District 1 to Tham Luong station in District 12 in the suburbs.
It was originally slated to be built from 2010 to 2018 at a total cost of VND 26.1 trillion (US$1.3 billion).
This amount included US$540 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), US$313 million from the German Development Bank (KfW), US$195 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and over US$326 million from Vietnam's reciprocal capital.
However, the project costs last year surged by 51 percent to US$2.07 billion after design revisions. That amount does not cover construction of Ben Thanh Station nor its operation or maintenance costs.
The city's Management Authority for Urban Railways attributed the rise in costs to inflation, higher wages and prices of materials in addition to an increased workload.
Due to adjustments for site clearance and compensation for the construction of stations, work did not begin until early last year on the section's final station and control quarters.
The project is now expected to be delayed until 2019, one year behind schedule.
Total Official Development Assistance (ODA) disbursed for the project from the beginning of 2015 until January 15, 2016 has reached nearly VND 108 billion (US$4.8 million), and Vietnamese reciprocal capital sits at VND 8 billion (US$360,000).
