The Government proposed two specific policies for the North-South high-speed railway project.

This afternoon, December 8, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh, authorized by the Prime Minister, presented a report on a number of specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

Untangle the knots

According to the report, the Government proposed two specific policies.

Firstly, the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works with voltage of 110 kV or higher of the Project are separated into independent projects, with funding 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 their local budget for implementation, the central budget will refund the local budget after balancing the capital. This point is assigned to the Government for detailed guidance.

Explaining the proposal of this policy, the Minister of Construction said that the separation into an independent project has advantages: compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works will be implemented independently and in parallel with the preparation of the Feasibility Study Report, the central budget capital will be transferred directly to localities (in case the local budget is not balanced enough), Vietnam Electricity Group does not go through the Ministry of Construction so it can speed up the implementation progress. Besides, in case the localities need to adjust the site clearance project, they will proactively implement it without depending on the project, so procedures and order will be reduced, and decentralization for localities will be increased.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh, authorized by the Prime Minister , presented a report on a number of specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis. (Photo: DBND Newspaper)

Allowing localities to advance budget resources, arrange local budget resources or proactively balance non-budgetary capital sources within their authority to carry out compensation, support and resettlement is necessary to increase initiative and speed up implementation progress.

In the submission, the Government also proposed a policy: 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 projects and report to the National Assembly at the nearest session.

According to Minister Tran Hong Minh, the project has a particularly large scope, scale, total investment, long implementation time, complex technology and techniques, many new fields, and is being implemented for the first time in Vietnam, so it is not possible to foresee all the difficulties and obstacles as well as the requirements for special mechanisms and policies to successfully implement the project. Therefore, the National Assembly has issued the above regulations for the form of public investment, not yet applied to other forms of investment.

In addition, to ensure project progress and facilitate private sector participation in the project, if it is necessary to supplement new mechanisms and policies, the National Assembly can authorize the National Assembly Standing Committee to decide. This mechanism has also been allowed by the National Assembly to be applied to the North-South Expressway Construction Investment Project in the West, Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) - Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc) section.

The exercise of powers by the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Government must be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution.

Not yet resolved urgent problems

According to Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai, the Committee basically agrees with the political, legal and practical bases stated in the Government's Report. The addition of mechanisms and policies for the Project is necessary, in line with the Party's policy on mobilizing social resources for strategic projects, unleashing private resources for key infrastructure, innovating methods and diversifying investment forms, while strengthening decentralization and delegation of authority associated with responsibility.

However, some opinions said that the proposed policies were unclear and did not address the urgent needs of the project. At the same time, they suggested that the competent authorities should be considered and given approval for the proposed additional specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the project.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai presented a report on the examination of a number of specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis. (Photo: DBND Newspaper)

The National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee found that the National Assembly's permission to separate the land acquisition, compensation, support, and resettlement contents of an important national project into component projects has a precedent in Resolution No. 38/2017/QH14 regarding the Long Thanh International Airport Project.

Therefore, the Government's proposal to separate the work of 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 National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee proposed clarifying the concept of "independent project"; clearly defining the total investment, the area of recovered land, the completion time of independent projects and the synchronization and unity of the entire project; ensuring that there is no difficulty or waste of resources when the route, scope, and implementation boundaries have not been determined and the total investment of the project is strictly controlled.

Regarding the policy of the National Assembly authorizing the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider, decide on supplementing and adjusting specific and special mechanisms and policies for investment methods, the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee said that this has been stipulated in Clause 18, Article 3 of Resolution No. 172/2024/QH15 dated November 30, 2024 of the National Assembly on project investment policy.

In addition, 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 National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee believes that the above policy proposal is unnecessary./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/chinh-phu-de-xuat-2-chinh-sach-dac-thu-cho-du-an-duong-sat-cao-toc-bac-nam-post1081718.vnp