High-speed railway: A strategic boost to create a new industry for Vietnam

Last week, public opinion was stirred up by the fact that a private enterprise “dared” to boldly apply to build the North-South high-speed railway. There were many conflicting opinions surrounding this bold proposal, but few paid attention to VinSpeed’s commitment to building a high-speed railway industry.

In fact, this is a leverage industry for the economic and industrial development of a country, but in Vietnam it is still a gap.

High-speed railway is a lever industry for the economic and industrial development of a country, but in Vietnam it is still a gap.

High-speed rail industry - The nation's technology launch pad

Unlike traditional infrastructure projects, high-speed rail (HSR) is the crystallization of a series of modern technologies and requires a closed industrial ecosystem. The HSR industry is a multi-layered complex, integrating hundreds of high technologies and has strong spillover effects to many other economic sectors.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc (Technical University of Berlin, Germany) affirmed that the high-speed railway industry is a typical representative of modern industry, along with the automobile and aircraft manufacturing industry. Any country that masters this industry has entered a new level of development. High-speed railway production requires a very high level of precision engineering. Each high-speed train consists of dozens of carriages, with thousands of components and complex details, from lightweight frame materials, electric-pneumatic braking systems, to anti-vibration bogie systems, traction motors, automatic control systems, speed sensors, and countless advanced material technologies to ensure safe operation at high speeds.

According to the expert, to operate a high-speed train, each carriage requires hundreds, even thousands of mechanical, electronic and automated components, most of which must be manufactured with near-absolute precision.

In addition, the HSR industry is also a convergence of digital technology industries. From central control, journey management, automatic operation to artificial intelligence (AI) systems, big data, cloud computing... are all integrated to optimize operations and enhance user experience.

Developing the HSR industry in countries not only solves hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, but also promotes innovation, technology transfer and increases labor productivity. According to Dr. Mai Van Sinh, an expert on industrial policy, one of the sectors that directly benefits from the HSR industry is tourism .

“ In Japan, domestic tourism revenue has increased sharply thanks to the Shinkansen lines. People travel by high-speed train because it is fast, punctual and convenient, ” said Dr. Sinh. That is also the reason why countries such as Japan, France, Germany, China and South Korea have considered developing HSR as a national strategy very early on.

In particular, Vietnam has a huge potential to develop the HSR industry. In addition to its large population, the network of inter-regional economic corridors is developing strongly. In addition to the North-South axis, there are many other development axes such as the Central Highlands - Central Coast, Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho - Ca Mau, or Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh...

These are all corridors that require high-speed transport infrastructure to relieve road pressure, shorten travel time, and facilitate the rapid movement of goods and labor between economic centers, creating the premise for Vietnam's breakthrough development in the new era.

For Vietnam, this industry will help reduce dependence on imported equipment, create jobs with high added value, and at the same time enhance the internal capacity of the industry. Such an industry, according to Dr. Mai Van Sinh, “must be developed by setting national goals, leading by leading enterprises and consistent long-term support policies.”

Opportunities to form Vietnam's HSR industry

If in the past, the Vietnamese automobile industry struggled for decades without being able to form a true national brand, then when VinFast appeared, a modern Vietnamese automobile industry was officially laid the foundation. In less than 8 years, VinFast was able to completely master production technology, own the most diverse range of electric cars in the world automobile industry, and at the same time bring the Vietnamese brand to the global market.

A similar model may be repeated with VinSpeed, the company that proposed to invest in the North-South HSR with a total length of more than 1,500 km. Although still in the proposal stage, the vision that VinSpeed ​​has put forth goes beyond a simple infrastructure project. Instead of just importing technology, VinSpeed ​​has determined to localize step by step, from receiving technology transfer, to mastering the entire HSR value chain, from train design, infrastructure construction, operation, maintenance to human resource training.

This requires the formation of a new industry, where Vietnamese enterprises are not only construction contractors but also participate in the production of high-speed train components, manufacturing signaling equipment, providing high-tech materials, etc. When this value chain is initiated, hundreds of domestic mechanical, electronic, material and IT enterprises will have the opportunity to upgrade their capacity and become satellites in a large-scale industrial ecosystem.

Associate Professor Dr. Bui Quang Tuan, Vice President of the Vietnam Economic Science Association, former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, commented that the point worth considering about VinSpeed ​​is not in proposing a giant infrastructure project, but in its industrial vision. VinFast has played a very important role in developing the modern automobile industry in Vietnam, so VinSpeed ​​can make a similarly important contribution to the modern HSR industry.

“ I believe that if approved, VinSpeed ​​will build a domestic industrial ecosystem around the HSR project. With the HSR industry, the standards are very high, but that is why domestic enterprises are forced to innovate, upgrade, and link and cooperate with each other. If they do not change themselves to adapt to that pressure, they will remain at a low level of processing ,” the expert frankly said.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Quang Tuan, if we invest in high-speed railways only to transport passengers, we may not see immediate profits from the project, but strategically, we can see an effective investment for the future of a new industry associated with human resource training, technology transfer, design and development, and "it is a worthy investment for a strategic industry of the country".

In the past, Vietnam was slow in the industrialization race due to the lack of cutting-edge industries. But the opportunity is coming back, this time with the high-speed rail industry. If VinSpeed, with Vingroup’s “say it, do it” genetic code, is given the responsibility to lead, Vietnam will not only own a high-speed transport route, but also lay the foundation for a high-tech industry with long-term value.

And further, this is an important test: is Vietnam ready to transform from a technology importing country to a technology creating country? The answer may start with the first rails laid on the North-South expressway.

Vtcnews.vn

Source: https://baomoi.com/tim-kiem/k%E1%BB%B7-nguy%C3%AAn-m%E1%BB%9Bi.epi