Supplementing specific mechanisms and policies for high-speed railway projects on the North-South axis

On the afternoon of December 4, continuing the 52nd Session, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on a number of specific mechanisms and policies, especially applicable to the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

Báo Đại biểu Nhân dân•04/12/2025

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh chaired the meeting.

Proposal to separate the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works with voltage of 110 kV or higher of the Project into independent projects

Presenting the Government's Report, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh said that after Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW dated May 4, 2025 of the Politburo on private economic development, a number of private enterprises proposed to invest in the Project, so it is necessary to deploy, review, evaluate and select investment forms to ensure the implementation of the Project's objectives.

Regarding policy content, the Government proposed 2 contents, including: Separating the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works with voltage of 110 kV or higher of the Project into independent projects, with capital allocated from the central and local budgets.

Localities and Vietnam Electricity Group are the competent authorities to organize, decide on investment, and implement compensation, support, and resettlement projects in the area. Investment in items related to this content does not require investment policy preparation.

The central budget capital is allocated directly to localities and Vietnam Electricity Group for implementation; in case the central budget has not been allocated in time, localities can proactively balance the local budget for implementation, the central budget will refund the local budget after balancing the capital. The Government is assigned to provide detailed instructions on this item.

The separation into an independent project has the following advantages: compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works will be implemented independently and in parallel with the preparation of the Feasibility Study Report, central budget capital will be transferred directly to localities (in case the local budget is not balanced enough), Vietnam Electricity Group through the Ministry of Construction can speed up the implementation progress; in case the localities need to adjust the site clearance project, they will proactively implement it without depending on the Project, thus reducing procedures and order, and increasing decentralization for localities.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh presents the Government's Proposal

To ensure project implementation progress, it is necessary to allow localities to advance budget resources, arrange local budget resources or proactively balance non-budgetary capital sources according to their authority to carry out compensation, support and resettlement, increasing initiative and speeding up implementation progress.

The Minister of Construction also said that the Government proposed that during the time the National Assembly is not in session, the National Assembly authorizes the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and decide on supplementing and adjusting specific mechanisms and policies, especially for investment methods (if any) to promptly implement the Project and report to the National Assembly at the nearest session.

Ensuring consistency in implementation

Examining this content, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai stated that the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee basically agreed that adding mechanisms and policies applicable to the project is necessary, consistent with the Party's policy on mobilizing social resources for strategic projects, unleashing private resources to invest in key infrastructure, innovating methods and diversifying investment forms, while strengthening decentralization and delegation of authority associated with responsibility.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented the Audit Report.

However, some opinions said that the proposed policies in Submission No. 1126/TTr-CP were not clear and did not solve the urgent and pressing issues of the Project; it was suggested that the competent authority should be considered and given the policy for the proposed additional specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the Project.

There is a proposal to study and apply the provisions of Resolution No. 206/2025/QH15 dated June 24, 2025 of the National Assembly on a special mechanism to handle difficulties and obstacles due to legal provisions, to promptly handle specific difficulties and obstacles of laws in the implementation of the Project.

Regarding the two main policy contents proposed by the Government, the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee found that the National Assembly's permission to separate the land acquisition, compensation, support and resettlement contents of the national key project into a component project has a precedent in Resolution No. 38/2017/QH14 on the Long Thanh International Airport Project. Therefore, the Government's proposal to separate the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works from 110 kV and above of the North-South High-Speed Railway Project into a separate project is well-founded.

However, the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee proposed to consider separating it into an independent component project and assign the Government to direct localities, ministries and branches to prepare a Feasibility Study Report to ensure consistency and unity; at the same time, clearly determine the total investment, recovered land area and completion progress, similar to Resolution No. 53/2017/QH14 dated June 19, 2017 of the National Assembly on the Feasibility Study Report of the Land Reclamation, Compensation, Support and Resettlement Project of Long Thanh International Airport.

Besides, current law only stipulates the concept of "independent component project", there is no concept of "independent project" as proposed, so it is necessary to use the correct term.

There are suggestions to allow localities and Vietnam Electricity Group to advance capital or use other legal sources for implementation in advance to ensure progress; at the same time, clarify the financial management mechanism, budget refund and supplement a unified monitoring mechanism among localities where the Project passes through.

Regarding the second policy proposal, the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee noted that Clause 18, Article 3 of Resolution No. 172/2024/QH15 dated November 30, 2024 of the National Assembly on the investment policy of the Project stipulates: During the time the National Assembly is not in session, the National Assembly authorizes the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to consider and decide to supplement and adjust specific and special mechanisms and policies for the Project.

At the same time, in Clause 14 of the Resolution of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the National Assembly approved the addition of investment forms under the Investment Law in the form of public-private partnership and business investment under the Investment Law for the North-South high-speed railway project in addition to the form of public investment; assigning the Government to organize the selection of investment forms and investors according to regulations; in case there are other mechanisms and policies beyond the authority of the Government, it shall report to the National Assembly for consideration and decision.

Therefore, the above policy proposal is unnecessary.

Through discussion, the National Assembly Standing Committee basically agreed with the proposal to separate the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works with voltage of 110 kV or higher of the Project into independent projects; requesting the Government to implement them as a single independent package to ensure synchronization in implementation.

Regarding the second policy of authorizing the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and decide on special mechanisms when the National Assembly is not in session, especially when applying other investment methods such as public-private partnership (PPP), the National Assembly Standing Committee agrees with the review opinion of the Standing Committee of the Economic and Financial Committee, accordingly, not reporting this content to the National Assembly.

Concluding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh assigned the Economic and Financial Committee to preside over and coordinate with the Ethnic Council and the Committees to complete the official verification report to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and comments at the 10th Session.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/bo-sung-co-che-chinh-sach-dac-thu-cho-du-an-duong-sat-toc-do-cao-tren-truc-bac-nam-10398256.html