Unleashing credit capital for the Nam Dinh - Thai Binh Expressway Project

Construction of the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway Investment Project, section through Nam Dinh (old) and Thai Binh (old) provinces.

Break the deadlock

Exactly 20 days after receiving the Prime Minister's direction, at the end of last week, the Ministry of Construction issued Official Dispatch No. 8104/BXD-CDBVN to the Government Standing Committee regarding the removal of difficulties in financial mechanisms for implementing the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway Construction Investment Project, through Nam Dinh (old) and Thai Binh (old) provinces.

Previously, in Official Dispatch No. 6715/VPCP-KTTH, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assigned the Ministry of Construction to urgently study the recommendations of GELEXIMCO Group on credit capital sources for the Project and report to the Government Standing Committee before July 20, 2025.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway Construction Investment Project through Nam Dinh and Thai Binh is a national key project. Accelerating the implementation progress of the Project plays an important role in promoting socio-economic development, especially the economic growth target of 8-8.5% in 2025 and double-digit growth in the following years.

According to the plan, the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong expressway connects from the North - South expressway in the East (section through Ninh Binh) to the Hanoi - Hai Phong expressway. The Prime Minister assigned the People's Committees of Ninh Binh, Hung Yen, and Hai Phong provinces to synchronously deploy the project, with a complete scale of 4 lanes.

Specifically, the Ninh Binh section is about 25 km long, starting construction on April 19, 2025; the Day River overpass is 2 km long, in Nam Dinh province (old) has basically been completed; the Nam Dinh - Thai Binh section is 61 km long, starting construction on May 12, 2025; the section through Hai Phong (30 km) is adjusting the project for expansion.

Resolving difficulties in accessing credit capital for the Project requires the coordination of relevant ministries, branches and agencies, especially the People's Committee of Hung Yen province as a competent state agency.

In Official Dispatch No. 8104, the Ministry of Construction requested the Government Standing Committee to direct the People's Committee of Hung Yen province to continue to promote the sense of responsibility for the Project, coordinate and accompany investors and project enterprises in negotiating with banks to provide credit for the Project implementation.

The Ministry of Construction believes that GELEXIMCO Group, as the leading investor of the consortium, based on the financial plan in the Project Contract, needs to proactively develop a suitable debt repayment plan, as a basis for organizing negotiations with banks on credit loans to implement the Project.

“Investors need to study the plan to prioritize the project’s revenue stream (after paying for management, operation, and maintenance costs) and mobilize other legal capital sources of the enterprise to pay interest and principal of bank loans. Owner’s equity and equity profits will be recovered after fully repaying the principal and interest of bank loans,” Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Construction, recommended.

Also in the document sent to the Government Standing Committee, the Ministry of Construction proposed that the State Bank take the lead and coordinate with ministries, branches and localities to urgently develop a list of projects using credit sources from the Credit Program for lending to invest in infrastructure and digital technology, especially key and important national projects and works (including the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway Construction Investment Project, section through Nam Dinh and Thai Binh).

“We request that banks including Vietnam Development Bank - VDB, Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, Agribank enhance their sense of responsibility in providing credit for key national projects and works, coordinate with Hung Yen Provincial People's Committee, GELEXIMCO Group, speed up appraisal procedures to consider and provide investment credit for the Project”, Official Dispatch No. 8104 of the Ministry of Construction clearly stated.

It is known that GELEXIMCO is the leading enterprise of the consortium, selected by the People's Committee of Thai Binh province (now the People's Committee of Hung Yen province) as the investor of the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway Construction Investment Project, section through Nam Dinh and Thai Binh under the PPP form, with a total investment of up to 19,784.54 billion VND.

This project started on May 12, 2025 and the head of the Government proposed to shorten the time, striving to exceed the schedule by at least 6 months, so that it can be completed in 2026.

In Document No. 1060/CV-GELE sent to the Prime Minister on July 11, 2025, GELEXIMCO Group said that the investor and project enterprise are very determined to direct the construction; the contractors also showed their determination by mobilizing machinery, equipment, human resources, material resources, and organizing the construction immediately after receiving the site handover from the locality, but all of the above efforts have not been recognized by the competent authority when the investor has not been granted a guarantee to perform the Contract.

Meanwhile, Article 5 "Contract validity" of BOT Contract No. 01/2025/HD.BOT-CT08 signed between the People's Committee of Thai Binh province (old) and the investor consortium stipulates: "The contract is effective from the day following the date the contract performance guarantee certificate has come into effect and is duly submitted by the investor and project enterprise to the competent authority".

This means that up to now, after more than 2 months since the commencement date, the validity of BOT Contract No. 01/2025/HD.BOT-CT08 has not been activated, causing difficulties for both investors, project enterprises and competent state agencies in implementing the next steps of the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway PPP Project, through Nam Dinh and Thai Binh.

GELEXIMCO believes that Appraisal Report No. 8786/BC-HDTĐLN dated October 23, 2025 assessed that the Project has a large loan source and a long payback period (25 years and 5 months), as well as the inability to repay the principal in the first 15 years of project operation... causing difficulties for investors in the process of working with credit institutions to request guarantees and arrange loans.

Therefore, in Document No. 1060/CV-GELE, GELEXIMCO Group requested the Prime Minister to consider and direct competent authorities to have solutions to remove difficulties and have specific mechanisms for national key projects so that investors can borrow credit capital from credit institutions with state-owned capital (Vietnam Development Bank - VDB, Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, Agribank), first of all, to guarantee the performance of the Contract, followed by procedures related to disbursement of credit capital for the project.

GELEXIMCO commits to using other legal financial resources of the Group to supplement the repayment source for loans (especially in the first 15 years of operation) to ensure financial feasibility for the Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway PPP Project, section through Nam Dinh and Thai Binh.

“The timely removal of the above-mentioned obstacles also creates a premise for other expressway PPP projects to access credit capital quickly and conveniently, serving as a basis for organizing construction to ensure quality and progress,” said Mr. Vu Van Tien, General Director of GELEXIMCO.

Expectations from the 500,000 billion VND Program

According to the leader of the Ministry of Construction, on August 1, the Ministry held a meeting with representatives of ministries, branches, the People's Committee of Hung Yen province, credit banks and investors on solutions to remove difficulties in mobilizing credit for the Project.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank have responded in writing to the GELEXIMCO Group's proposal. According to the agencies' assessment, the project's financial plan is feasible, the People's Committee of Hung Yen province approved the project and signed a contract with the investor.

The Ministry of Construction assessed that the project has state capital participation of up to 47.19% of the total investment and is subject to the revenue sharing mechanism according to the PPP Law; site clearance has reached 82%; obstacles in material supply have been resolved... are favorable conditions to ensure the project is completed on schedule and investment efficiency is promoted.

The Ninh Binh - Hai Phong Expressway PPP project through Nam Dinh (old) and Thai Binh (old) provinces was approved by the Prime Minister, assigning the People's Committee of Thai Binh province (now Hung Yen) as the competent authority.

The investor is the GELEXIMCO - Vinaconex - Phuong Thanh - Nam Son - Hoang Cau Joint Venture. The project enterprise is Nam Dinh - Thai Binh Expressway Investment Joint Stock Company.

The project has cleared about 50/60.9 km (82%) of land; the central budget has allocated 5,700 billion VND for 2025, the local budget has allocated 1,622 billion VND (701 billion VND has been disbursed); the investor has implemented 14/14 construction packages.

Regarding credit provision, the Ministry of Construction said that current laws have given autonomy to credit institutions in considering and granting credit to customers based on the assessment of project feasibility and efficiency, customer repayment capacity, and ability to balance capital sources in each period.

Based on the financial plan in the signed project contract, investors have proactively developed debt repayment plans and organized negotiations with banks to mobilize credit loans according to current regulations without having to issue specific mechanisms.

Specifically, there are 3 projects on the North-South Expressway in the East (Dien Chau - Bai Vot, Nha Trang - Cam Lam, Cam Lam - Vinh Hao sections) and the Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway Project with similar scale and financial plans that have successfully mobilized credit capital.

In addition, according to GELEXIMCO Group's report, through negotiations, BIDV has committed to mobilizing about 2,600/8,880 billion VND to implement the Project.

In Official Dispatch No. 6705/NHNN-TD sent to GELEXIMCO Group, the State Bank said that, implementing the Prime Minister's direction on implementing the Credit Loan Program for investment in infrastructure and digital technology (including key national traffic projects), the bank has so far prepared sufficient capital (VND 500,000 billion) for implementation.

“The State Bank has sent a document requesting the Ministry of Construction to identify the subjects, conditions, criteria, and list of projects participating in the Program. In case the project is on the list announced by the Ministry of Construction, banks will consider lending according to the policy of the Government and the Prime Minister,” said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Canh, Deputy Governor of the State Bank.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/khoi-dong-von-tin-dung-du-an-cao-toc-doan-nam-dinh---thai-binh-d359786.html