Proposal to amend criteria to attract investors to build Ho Chi Minh City

Lack of financial capacity and experience

The Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (HCMC Traffic Board) recently reported to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on the situation of organizing surveys and evaluating investor interest records for Component Project 1, Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway (Phase I).

According to the report, after 2.5 months from the announcement and receipt of documents, 4 investors and consortiums of investors have submitted documents, including: Cienco4 Group Joint Stock Company (Vietnam), Joint venture of 194 Construction Investment Corporation Joint Stock Company and Lizen Joint Stock Company (Vietnam), CRBC-CTG Joint Venture (China Road and Bridge Corporation and Metro Star Investment Joint Stock Company), China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (China).

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has evaluated the dossiers based on the prescribed criteria. The results show that all four investors and the investor consortium did not meet the requirements according to the survey criteria. Specifically, Cienco 4 did not meet the requirements on financial capacity and experience. The consortiums CRBC-CTG, 194 - Lizen and China Harbour Engineering Company Limited all failed because they did not meet the experience criteria according to current regulations.

The Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway Project has a length of 51 km, with a total investment of VND 19,617 billion, invested in the form of public-private partnership (BOT contract). Of which, Component Project 1 (expressway section) will start construction in January 2026 and be completed by the end of 2027.

Proposal to amend criteria to attract investors

According to the pre-qualification invitation documents, there are 2 main groups of criteria, which are also the 2 biggest "barriers" that investors must overcome: financial capacity and experience in implementing equivalent projects.

First is the financial requirement, the investor must arrange a minimum equity capital of 1,491 billion VND (equivalent to 15% of the total project investment, excluding the state capital used for site clearance).

In the case of a consortium, the lead investor must own at least 30% of the total equity, and the remaining members must contribute at least 15% of the total equity. Each member of the consortium must meet the requirements corresponding to its equity contribution according to the consortium agreement. If any member is assessed as failing, the entire consortium will be assessed as failing to meet the equity requirements.

It can be seen that with a minimum capital requirement of 1,491 billion VND, it is very difficult for a single enterprise to meet the current context. Even if participating in the form of a joint venture, if only one member does not meet the requirements, the entire joint venture will be eliminated.

Regarding the experience requirement, the investor or consortium member must have participated in at least 2 projects as an equity investor or contractor. The method of determining project experience is divided into 4 types, each type has its own requirements on total investment and value of work participation, in which the lowest level is 2,577 billion VND. In addition, only projects that have been completed on schedule and meet the quality according to the contract are recognized as valid.

Another strict criterion is that investors must prove that they have applied innovative solutions to shorten progress, save energy, and protect the environment in projects.

Since no investor fully meets the above criteria, while the project's commencement date is approaching, to ensure progress, the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department has proposed the City People's Committee to allow the reorganization of the survey process according to the new form issued in Decree 71/2025/ND-CP.

In particular, the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department proposed to adjust the criteria related to the minimum number of projects, project classification and project conversion methods to better suit the reality. The revised criteria aim to attract more investors to participate, but still ensure the principle of selecting contractors with real capacity.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/kien-nghi-sua-doi-tieu-chi-de-thu-hut-nha-dau-tu-lam-cao-toc-tphcm---moc-bai-d334032.html