What did the president of the Western Union say about the $100 billion proposal for the North-South railway?

What did the president of the Western Union say about the $100 billion proposal for the North-South railway? - Photo 1.

Headquarters of Mekolor Joint Stock Company in Can Tho City - Photo: LE DAN

After Tuoi Tre Online reported on the Mekolor and Great USA Investment Alliance's proposal to participate in the North-South high-speed railway project with a commitment to invest about 100 billion USD, public opinion has shown much interest in this new "player".

According to the proposal, the $100 billion high-speed railway project will use equity capital from funds in the Mekolor and Great USD ecosystems.

What did the alliance president say about the proposal?

According to the business registration certificate, the joint stock company was first registered on October 27, 2016 and registered for the first change on September 9, 2021, Mekolor Joint Stock Company, with Mr. Vo Xuan Truong as the legal representative. The charter capital of this company is 1 billion VND, headquartered at 24/11/4A Ly Tu Trong Street, An Cu Ward, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City.

On the morning of June 10, Tuoi Tre Online went to the company’s headquarters (according to the business registration certificate), located in a small alley on Ly Tu Trong Street. At the place where the company’s sign was posted, the door was not open and there were no employees working.

One of the notable points is that this alliance commits to directly investing with its own capital, self-arranging about 100 billion USD from investment funds belonging to Great Core Fund and Mekolor Captial - belonging to the ecosystem of Mekolor and Great USD.

Responding to Tuoi Tre Online, Mr. Vo Xuan Truong - chairman of the Mekolor and Great USA alliance - said the reason the alliance did not choose to cooperate with large domestic corporations from the beginning was because of the goal of transferring technology from foreign partners.

"Because we want to transfer technology, we must have a partner on the other side (foreign - PV). In addition, this alliance also receives support in auditing and project management. That means we ask them to supervise and support us, and we do the proactive implementation because we use 95% of the labor force as Vietnamese," said Mr. Truong.

He also said that with available financial resources, the alliance proactively proposed to invest in the project first. When implementing, the alliance will choose to cooperate with domestic partners that meet technical standards to jointly implement the project.

To date, the alliance has not received any response from the authorities regarding the investment proposal.

However, Mr. Truong said that based on press information and statements from the Government , he saw that the Government needed a unit with enough financial potential to carry out the project. This alliance "is confident about it, so it believes that the feasibility is high".

On his personal page, Mr. Truong regularly shares information related to the blockchain technology platform, and announces plans to seek and prioritize cooperation or M&A with businesses that own electronic invoice licenses and intermediary electronic wallets to integrate into the financial ecosystem of this unit.

Test for investor screening mechanism

Sharing with Tuoi Tre Online , Mr. Dao Tien Phong, managing lawyer of Investpush Law Firm LLC, said that current law does not prohibit businesses from proposing to participate in investment projects.

However, the figure of 100 billion USD mentioned in the proposal is a very large and surprising number, so it is understandable that many people expressed skepticism about its feasibility.

There have been opinions that there should not be a situation of "taking advantage of proposals" for personal purposes, such as using project information to raise capital.

For a project of national importance, feasibility needs to be carefully assessed by the authorities, especially in the context of national strategic infrastructure.

According to Mr. Phong, the verification of financial commitments, especially the figure of 100 billion USD, will be carried out by the competent authorities and the proposing unit is responsible for proving its capacity in that process.

He also noted that in a business environment, the publication of unrealistic figures can cause confusion and distort the market. However, there are currently no specific legal regulations to handle or deter cases where businesses provide unreliable financial information.

So if after the inspection, the competent authority determines that the investor does not have the financial capacity as announced, will there be any sanctions? Mr. Phong commented that in that case, the proposing unit will simply be eliminated from the consideration process, and will not be subject to any other sanctions for these proposals.

In the context of the Government encouraging the private sector to participate in key infrastructure projects, the emergence of another potential investor is a matter of concern. However, money alone is not enough, businesses need to demonstrate their ability to play a real role in the technology and engineering supply chain serving the project.

railway - Photo 3.

The headquarters of Mekolor Joint Stock Company is located in a small alley on Ly Tu Trong Street, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City - Photo: LE DAN

Business owner was administratively punished for posting false information

According to the conclusion of the authorities, in 2024, Mr. Truong was administratively fined 20 million VND by the Inspector of the Department of Information and Communications of Can Tho City and had to remove all the violating content posted online.

Penalized behavior includes slander, insulting organizations/individuals and illegally collecting and using personal information.

Regarding this incident, speaking to Tuoi Tre Online , Mr. Truong said: "We are filing an administrative lawsuit in Can Tho because they wrongly fined us and are waiting for a resolution, meaning we have contacted the file several times and are waiting for the first instance trial."

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chu-tich-lien-minh-o-mien-tay-noi-gi-ve-de-xuat-100-ti-usd-cho-duong-sat-bac-nam-20250610121041721.htm