Investing heavily in building a road to great wealth.

The early and adequate allocation of capital has enabled many large-scale transportation infrastructure projects implemented over the past 4-5 years to make rapid progress, creating breakthroughs in terms of schedule and investment efficiency.

Unlock capital

For the past few weeks, one of the top priorities of the leadership of the Railway Project Management Board - the main unit of the Ministry of Construction in the field of operating and managing railway infrastructure projects - has been to closely coordinate with the six provinces and cities with the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway line, to quickly and accurately determine the needs, and immediately allocate funds for compensation, support, and resettlement for the Project.

Illustrative image.

“Just a few days after the National Assembly approved the investment plan for the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway project, the Ministry of Finance submitted a proposal to the Government to immediately allocate 2,000 billion VND from the medium-term public investment fund of the central government budget for the period 2021-2025. This is an important condition for the project to have a very favorable start,” said Mr. Mai Minh Viet, Deputy Director of the Railway Project Management Board.

With a total investment of VND 203,231 billion (equivalent to USD 8.37 billion), the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway construction project, in addition to its immense significance for socio -economic development, is also considered a "practice run," drawing important experience for the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

In particular, "rapid implementation" and "efficiency in investment" are two requirements set by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh for the investor of the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway construction project.

As requested by the head of government, the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway construction project will commence on December 19, 2025. If calculated from the time the National Assembly approves the investment plan to the commencement of the main construction items, the total investment preparation time will only last 12 months.

With the valuable resources that the whole country has carefully saved and allocated to transportation, the entire nation has been transformed into a massive construction site, making the 2021-2025 term a truly successful "highway construction" period in the literal sense of the word.

Furthermore, the close and smooth coordination, along with the provision of favorable procedural conditions by the Ministry of Finance, has helped investors in the transportation infrastructure sector achieve positive disbursement results, with an average of 80,000 - 90,000 billion VND of public investment capital injected into construction sites each year during the 2021-2025 period. This is a crucial driving force behind many projects successfully meeting their deadlines.

This is the shortest investment preparation period ever, including engineering design, contractor selection, and capital mobilization, for a public investment project of a similar nature and scale to the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway construction project.

“The Ministry of Construction is directing the Railway Project Management Board and the consulting firm to study separating the project into two component projects, including Component Project 1: investment in infrastructure connecting stations along the entire line using domestic capital and implemented by a Vietnamese contractor, in order to proactively ensure commencement on December 19, 2025. Regarding domestic capital, we have closely coordinated with the Ministry of Finance to balance and allocate sufficient funds for the project,” said Mr. Nguyen Danh Huy, Deputy Minister of Construction.

It should be added that, for large-scale transportation infrastructure projects, ensuring sufficient land is handed over before the commencement date and that funding is fully and continuously allocated in a flexible manner are two prerequisites for projects to be completed on schedule, with guaranteed quality and investment efficiency.

"In the context of limited national resources, identifying 'optimal investment destinations,' including the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway construction project, will not only help us clearly define our goals but also accurately allocate valuable resources to 'powerful projects' with high ripple effects and immediate impact on the economy," said a leader of the Ministry of Construction.

A stepping stone for overcoming obstacles.

Dr. Tran Chung, Chairman of the Association of Road Construction Investors, believes that the prioritization by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (both in the past and currently by the Ministry of Finance) of allocating a large amount of public investment capital to the transportation infrastructure sector, instead of spreading it thinly as before, has brought about significant changes to large-scale transportation infrastructure projects.

"Experience shows that in basic construction, there are three factors that determine the progress and quality of a project: capital, land availability, and contractor capacity. Of these, capital is the decisive and crucial factor, or to put it simply, you can't do anything without resources. This is absolutely true for the implementation of key transportation projects over the past four years," Mr. Chung said.

According to incomplete statistics, as of July 2025, the investment in transportation infrastructure managed by the Ministry of Construction alone has been allocated a total planned budget of VND 396,435 billion for the 2021-2025 period (equivalent to approximately 70% of the needs), including VND 295,888 billion from the medium-term public investment capital for the 2021-2025 period; VND 81,269 billion from the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program; and VND 19,278 billion from increased central government budget revenue in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

This truly represents a leap in resources, because during the period 2001-2010, public investment allocated to the Ministry of Construction was only a meager 161,800 billion VND; the period 2011-2020 was slightly better, but still only around 474,000 billion VND, equivalent to 52% of the required amount.

If we include the budget capital invested by local authorities in key transportation infrastructure projects such as: Ring Road 4 - Hanoi; Ring Road 3 - Ho Chi Minh City; urban railway projects in the two major cities; Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway; Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway; Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway... then the investment capital allocated to the entire transportation sector to implement these "powerful initiatives" in the 2021-2025 period will certainly exceed 600,000 billion VND.

This is a huge boost, helping the basic transportation infrastructure sector escape the precarious situation of relying on limited funding for key projects, directly accelerating the entire "transportation infrastructure" system.

As of early July 2025, the Ministry of Construction had put into operation several additional sections of six component projects of the North-South Expressway in the East, bringing the total length of expressways nationwide to 2,268 km.

The Ministry of Construction is also making efforts to implement and urge localities to construct 25 projects/component projects with a total length of 941 km to be completed in 2025 in order to achieve the target of 3,000 km; directing the acceleration of progress to complete phase 1 of Long Thanh International Airport; and urgently completing investment dossiers for the North-South high-speed railway project, Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong.

"The early completion of these projects will contribute to reducing logistics costs, creating new development opportunities for localities after mergers, and establishing connections between regions across the country and with the international community," a leader from the Ministry of Construction stated.

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Source: https://baolaocai.vn/don-von-cho-mo-duong-dai-phu-post881244.html