Minister Tran Hong Minh speaks about his major concerns.

TPO - According to Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh, five investors have already registered to participate in railway projects. Therefore, mechanisms and policies are needed to create favorable conditions for them to invest effectively.

After 50 years, we still haven't achieved self-reliance in science and technology.

On the afternoon of June 16th, the National Assembly held group discussions on the draft Law on Railways (amended).

During the meeting, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh stated that Vietnam's railway system has a very long history, dating back over 140 years, and has brought tremendous benefits to the country's development, especially during the war years and the centrally-controlled economy period.

According to the minister, about two or three terms ago, investment in railways, especially the North-South axis, was discussed by the National Assembly. Recently, the railway system has undergone many innovations, with the emergence of several urban railway lines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh at the discussion session. Photo: Nhu Y.

During implementation, these projects heavily rely on foreign factors, from investment and capital mobilization to technology lines. This leads to many negative consequences such as: prolonged construction time, failure to meet deadlines; project cost overruns; and, on the other hand, the ability to supply and master the technology lines is almost nonexistent.

Furthermore, each project uses technology from a different country. This leads to a lack of synchronization, making supply, replacement, and repair difficult due to dependence on multiple countries.

According to Minister Tran Hong Minh, this situation reveals the inadequacies of the current legal system. This has been a major concern for the former Ministry of Transport and now the Ministry of Construction. After 50 years since the liberation of the country, we are still unable to achieve self-reliance in science and technology, and have not yet mastered this important field. Therefore, the proposal for a comprehensive revision of the Railway Law aims to remove these legal bottlenecks.

Reduce time, save costs.

Regarding the changes to the draft law compared to the current law, Mr. Minh stated that the old law had 84 articles but was too detailed, with many contents falling outside the authority of the National Assembly and instead belonging to the Government. Therefore, the revised draft law has removed 24 articles, leaving approximately 60 articles, focusing on core issues.

The main contents included in the draft amendment law are: State preferential policies for railway development, which clearly stipulate specific criteria and conditions to attract investors.

Minister Tran Hong Minh emphasized that if only the State invests without encouraging the participation of private enterprises, implementation will be very difficult. Therefore, the draft Law has added provisions on mobilizing capital and developing the private economy.

According to him, five investors have already registered to participate in the railway projects. Therefore, mechanisms and policies are needed to create favorable conditions for them to invest effectively.

Another new provision included in the draft law is the development of railways in conjunction with the Transported Development (TOD) model. This is a crucial solution; instead of solely recovering capital from ticket sales (which can take hundreds of years), investors are allowed to utilize land at train stations and urban areas to generate resources for reinvestment. This not only makes the project economically viable but also contributes to the development of civilized and modern cities.

Furthermore, the draft law also reforms investment procedures, allowing for the consolidation of several steps, for example, permitting the combination of the pre-feasibility study phase with the technical design and construction drawings. "This can shorten the investment preparation time and save costs for the state," the Minister emphasized.

In particular, the Minister of Construction emphasized that the draft law also allows for the separation of land clearance projects into independent projects, creating conditions for land clearance projects to be implemented first, helping the project have a clean site before construction begins, ensuring that implementation is not delayed.

Luan Dung

Source: https://tienphong.vn/bo-truong-tran-hong-minh-noi-ve-tran-tro-lon-post1751766.tpo