On the first morning of the new year 2024, the Government leader issued the order to start the Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway PPP project. With a total investment of more than 14,000 billion VND in phase 1, the Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway is also the first PPP project to be started for the pilot project with state budget support of up to 70% according to the National Assembly 's resolution.
Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway started construction after many years of problems
According to the investor of Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway, the implementation will be a premise to demonstrate the successful resolution of difficulties of PPP projects for many years, to continue implementing difficult key projects in the coming time.
Previously, 5 North-South Expressway component projects in the 2017-2020 period under the PPP form had to be converted to public investment, leaving only 3 projects to be implemented under the PPP form.
However, in 2024, there will be many more "mega-projects" of transportation under the PPP form being promoted for implementation such as the Gia Nghia - Chon Thanh, Ninh Binh - Thai Binh - Nam Dinh - Hai Phong expressways...
According to the Ministry of Transport, there are 16 investment projects under the PPP method. In addition to 4 projects completed and put into operation (including Bac Giang - Lang Son, Quang Ninh - Hai Phong, Ha Long - Van Don, Van Don - Mong Cai), there are 5 projects that have approved investment policies and 7 projects are preparing investment policies.
In the context of limited public resources, unlocking PPP resources for transport infrastructure is expected to contribute to accelerating investment in expressway projects, achieving the target of 3,000 km of expressway by 2025 set by the National Assembly and the Government.
According to Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, the figures on the number of kilometers of highways built in the past 3 years are astonishing and have a breakthrough meaning. With a huge investment strategy for transport infrastructure, not only highways, a series of bottlenecks in the fields of aviation and seaports are being removed with an overall vision.
In particular, not only major economic regions benefit from enhanced connectivity infrastructure, but also the difficult northern mountainous regions and the Mekong Delta provinces have received strong investment, creating a great driving force for socio-economic development in these regions.
"2024 will still be a difficult year like 2023 when the world economy is still unstable and the health of domestic enterprises is still limited. However, instead of paying too much attention to short-term GDP growth, it is necessary to prepare conditions for longer-term growth, which the Government is currently doing very well: investing in transport infrastructure, preparing high-quality human resources, institutional reform... In other words, if we focus on solving bottlenecks, including infrastructure, it will help the story of long-term growth of the economy," Dr. Thien said.
Focus on infrastructure bottlenecks
According to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, 2023 is a year with many breakthroughs in investment in developing transport infrastructure. 2023 begins with the simultaneous groundbreaking of 12 component projects of the North-South Expressway construction investment project in the East phase 2021 - 2025, 729 km long. This is also the first time that the groundbreaking of projects is carried out simultaneously nationwide.
My Thuan 2 Bridge to be inaugurated at the end of 2023
In total, 26 major transport projects were started during the year. Of these, 12 are the North-South Expressway component projects in the East (phase 2), the East-West Expressway projects and the urban beltways in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Last year alone, the transport sector put into operation 20 projects, including 9 expressway projects longer than 475 km, bringing the total length of expressway put into operation nationwide to 1,892 km.
From more than 55,000 billion VND of planned investment capital assigned in 2022, by 2023 the Ministry of Transport was assigned 94,000 billion VND by the Government. If including 19,900 billion VND of economic career capital, in 2023 the transport sector must disburse up to 114,000 billion VND. This is a big challenge in the context of the disbursement rate of public and general investment capital being quite slow.
To promote disbursement progress, the leaders of the Ministry of Transport require that low-disbursement projects must be immediately rebalanced to high-disbursement projects; for projects with prolonged slow disbursement, the heads of investors and the Project Management Board must be responsible. By the end of December 2023, the Ministry of Transport had basically disbursed 90% of the plan and is forecast to reach the target of 95% of the assigned plan by the end of the disbursement year (January 2024).
Notably, by the end of 2023, up to 25 expressway projects have been decentralized to local authorities. The decentralization and complete decentralization of management and exploitation of traffic infrastructure to local authorities is being implemented in accordance with the Government's directive "whatever the local authorities can do, let the local authorities do".
Previously, at the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly, the Government approved a plan to submit a Resolution on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies on investment in road construction. This is considered a breakthrough in the institution, removing bottlenecks in traffic projects, allowing state budget capital to exceed 50% as prescribed in the PPP Law.
In 2024, as planned, the Ministry of Transport will complete and put into operation two expressway projects: Dien Chau - Bai Vot and Cam Lam - Vinh Hao, bringing the total number of expressways put into operation to 2,021 km. At the same time, localities will complete documents to start construction of 11 expressway projects assigned to the local authorities.
The Ministry of Transport also strives to approve the investment policy for the North-South high-speed railway project; speed up the preparation for investment in important railway routes such as: Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, Long Thanh - Thu Thiem, Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong.
In 2023, transportation will recover and have a strong shift in market share structure, with waterway and railway transport growing, sharing pressure on roads.
After many years of losses, Vietnam Railways Corporation in the 3 quarters of 2023 had a net revenue of nearly 2,050 billion VND, profit after tax from transportation exceeded the plan. The railway has also established an international transit station at Kep station (Bac Giang), exporting goods from Song Than station, Binh Duong to China.
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