Not depending on foreign loans, what advantages does the North-South high-speed railway have?

As planned, the North-South high-speed railway construction project will use 100% public investment capital, not depending on foreign loans.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy, the capital for investment in high-speed railway construction comes from balancing expenditures, government bond capital, capital contributed by localities, mobilized capital with low costs and few constraints, increased revenue, and annual savings. "We will not depend on foreign loans. In the case of foreign loans, there must be preferential conditions and few constraints. And the most important condition when choosing foreign technology as well as capital is that they must transfer all technology," Mr. Huy emphasized.

The North-South high-speed railway project will not depend on foreign loans. (Illustration photo: AI)

Commenting on the benefits of not depending on foreign capital to build the North-South high-speed railway, transport expert Tu Sy Sua, senior lecturer at the University of Transport, said that this is very meaningful because it will help Vietnam have the right to self-determination when implementing the project. “Previously, we often used ODA capital to implement key projects and of course, there would be constraints and requirements from the capital supplier. But now, when we no longer depend on foreign capital sources, we will be able to be autonomous and not be bound by constraints. For example, we can decide on the time, progress and technology of the project,” Mr. Sua analyzed. Moreover, according to expert Tu Sy Sua, when we take the initiative in capital sources, we will solve the problem of lack of funding, slow progress and capital increase many times. “When borrowing ODA capital, we will have to wait for partners to inject capital in batches before we can implement the project in stages. However, these capital sources do not always arrive on time. Therefore, in many cases, projects are forced to stop waiting for money, leading to delays. By no longer depending on foreign capital, that problem will be solved. Or at least the delay will not be due to waiting for capital sources,” emphasized expert Tu Sy Sua. Agreeing with the above comment, National Assembly Delegate Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap ) also expanded to other key projects. According to him, if we can proactively source domestic capital for large projects, we can proactively hire and require construction units to implement on schedule, with quality and without cost overruns like previous projects that had to borrow.

“The reality shows that when using and depending on foreign capital, we are bound and dependent on our partners. We cannot even take the initiative in contractors and technology... In fact, urban railway lines such as the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway and the Nhon - Hanoi station metro line have encountered difficulties leading to delays of up to ten years partly due to the above reasons,” said delegate Hoa. However, Mr. Hoa also admitted that with large projects with a large amount of investment capital, it is difficult for Vietnam to take the initiative and still have to borrow. At that time, we have to calculate how much to borrow and how much domestic capital is appropriate. Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen - Chairman of the Vietnam Transport Association - also said that with the initiative of domestic capital sources when building the North - South high-speed railway, Vietnam can completely set its own criteria to select advanced technology from countries around the world , from which it can bid to select domestic or international contractors in a strict manner with higher requirements. "When we do not have to depend on borrowing capital from abroad, we will have a very high level of initiative in many aspects such as: proactively implementing the project, proactively in terms of time, progress, technology... In addition, it also helps reduce public debt pressure and mobilize domestic resources better, thereby contributing to spreading and promoting economic development ", Mr. Quyen said. Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc - former Deputy Chairman of the Economic Committee of the 14th National Assembly, member of the Expert Group of the Steering Committee for the construction and implementation of the Project on investment in high-speed railways - is quite confident that Vietnam has enough resources to build the project itself without having to borrow foreign capital. Mr. Phuc analyzed: As reported by the Ministry of Transport , Japan decided to invest in the first railway line in 1950 when GDP per capita was only about 250 USD. China invested in 2005 when GDP per capita reached 1,753 USD; Uzbekistan invested in 2011, when GDP per capita reached 1,926 USD. Indonesia invested in 2015 when GDP per capita was about 3,322 USD. In Vietnam, according to research by the World Bank, this is the right time to build a high-speed railway when GDP per capita in 2023 will reach about 4,282 USD and is estimated to reach about 7,500 USD in 2030. The size of the economy in 2023 will be about 430 billion USD, nearly 3 times higher than in 2010; public debt will be low, only about 37% of GDP. "It is expected that by the time the high-speed railway is built in 2027, the size of the economy will reach about 564 billion USD, so investment resources will no longer be a major obstacle," Mr. Phuc said.

VTC.vn

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/khong-phu-thuoc-von-vay-nuoc-ngoai-duong-sat-toc-do-cao-bac-nam-co-loi-the-gi-ar899412.html