The opening helps "upgrade" the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong

Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway has the opportunity to expand to meet development needs.

Clear direction of treatment

The bottleneck related to the recovery of state budget capital advanced to invest in the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I has basically had a final solution, according to the contents of Official Dispatch No. 13852/BTC-PTHT that the Ministry of Finance just sent to the Ministry of Construction in the middle of this week.

This is the second time in the past two weeks that the Ministry of Finance has issued an official dispatch instructing the Ministry of Construction to thoroughly handle this issue, in order to strictly implement financial discipline, and at the same time to open up opportunities to soon upgrade the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway under the PPP method.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I has been advanced from the central budget to the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) for completion, with a total disbursed capital of VND9,563,259 billion.

The Ministry of Construction is the competent authority implementing the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project, Phase I, and organizing the toll bidding to repay the advanced state budget capital according to the direction of the Prime Minister .

However, for many reasons, by the end of 2018, the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I had only organized toll collection, sold toll collection rights and paid to the state budget 2,390,937 billion VND, while 7,172,322 billion VND had not been refunded to the state budget due to having to stop collecting tolls.

In Official Dispatch No. 12944/BTC-PTHT dated August 21, 2025 on the recovery of state budget capital advanced for project investment, the Ministry of Finance commented that in case the collection of fees to refund the state budget cannot be implemented, it requested the Ministry of Construction to base on the provisions at Point c, Clause 8, Article 4, Resolution No. 70/2025/UBTVQH15 dated February 7, 2025 of the National Assembly Standing Committee to report to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision on capital allocation for the Project in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2026-2030 of the Ministry of Construction to recover the remaining unrecovered advance capital of the Project.

In Official Dispatch No. 9298/BXD-KHTC dated August 29, 2025, the Ministry of Construction affirmed that it could not repay the remaining advanced state budget capital for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I from toll collection (according to the price mechanism).

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance agrees with the proposal of the Ministry of Construction to submit to the competent authority to arrange state budget capital to recover the remaining advance payment for the Project, ensuring compliance with the State Budget Law.

The Ministry of Construction is fully responsible for the investment process of the Project and the management and exploitation of assets in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Public Asset Management. In case of continued investment, the Ministry of Construction is responsible for preserving the State capital and assets invested from the State budget for the Project.

“Regarding the amount paid to the state budget from the source of toll collection organizations and the sale of toll collection rights (VND 2,390,937 billion), the Ministry of Construction is requested to direct the investor to work with the State Treasury where the investor paid the state budget from the source of toll collection organizations and the sale of toll collection rights of the Project to carry out accounting procedures to recover the amount of state budget capital advanced in accordance with regulations,” Official Dispatch No. 13852 stated.

Previously, in Official Dispatch No. 7263/BXD-KHTC sent to the Ministry of Finance on July 24, 2025, Mr. Bui Xuan Dung, Deputy Minister of Construction, said that the 2024 Road Law and Decree No. 130/ND-CP dated October 10, 2024 of the Government stipulated that the State collects highway usage fees for vehicles traveling on highways owned by the entire people and directly managed and operated by the State.

However, in documents No. 6727/VPCP-CN dated August 31, 2023 and No. 1216/VPCP-CN dated February 15, 2025, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Construction to preside over research on investment in expanding the entire Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway under the PPP method, and urgently start the project in the second quarter of 2025.

"Therefore, if we continue to implement the plan of selling toll collection rights to repay the remaining state budget capital, we cannot immediately implement the investment to expand this expressway according to the Prime Minister's direction," the leader of the Ministry of Construction analyzed.

Prerequisites

It is known that the investment preparation work for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project under the PPP method is entering the final stage. At the end of last week, Project Management Board 7 - the unit assigned by the Ministry of Construction to represent the competent State agency - submitted a request to the Vietnam Road Administration (a specialized agency on construction) to appraise the Feasibility Study Report for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project under the PPP method, BOT contract type.

This is a project proposed by the consortium of Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company, Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company, Tasco Joint Stock Company, Hoang Long Construction Investment Corporation - JSC, CII Services and Investment One Member Co., Ltd. as the project investor. According to the proposal, the project will upgrade and expand the 96.13 km long Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway from 4 lanes to 6 - 10 lanes.

Of which, the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong section after upgrading and expanding has a scale of 8 lanes, the geometric elements (plan, longitudinal section) meet the standards of a 120 km/h expressway; the Trung Luong - My Thuan section will be invested in expansion to ensure a scale of 6 lanes according to the approved planning; the geometric elements (plan, longitudinal section) meet the standards of a 100 km/h expressway.

In addition to the non-stop automatic toll collection system, the Project also builds and upgrades the ITS intelligent traffic system according to current regulations, ensuring synchronization within the project scope and neighboring expressways, meeting the requirements for highway operation and exploitation, ensuring synchronous connection of the expressway network.

In addition, the Project also invests in expanding rest stops on the route with a scale of 15 - 20 hectares/side (station Km28+200 with a scale of 20 hectares/side and station Km78+220 with a scale of 15 hectares/side) to meet the needs of people and vehicles traveling on the highway, ensuring a long-term vision.

It is estimated that the total land use area of the Project is about 1,045.55 hectares, of which the previous phase cleared 949.71 hectares; it is necessary to additionally clear about 95.84 hectares (Ho Chi Minh City area is 6.37 hectares; the old Long An province is 60.84 hectares and the old Tien Giang province is 28.63 hectares).

With the above investment scale, the total investment capital of the Project is about 41,372 billion VND, of which the investor's equity is about 6,206 billion VND, and the capital mobilized by the investor is about 35,166 billion VND.

Because the Trung Luong - My Thuan section is collecting tolls to recover capital under the BOT form, after completing the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project, the investor will initially organize toll collection on the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway to recover capital for the expansion.

For the Trung Luong - My Thuan section, priority will be given to capital recovery for the Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway BOT Project Phase I. After completion, toll collection will be shifted to capital recovery for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project.

The existing BOT project enterprise will manage and operate the Trung Luong - My Thuan section until the end of the existing BOT project contract; then it will be transferred to the project enterprise of the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project to continue managing and operating.

Mr. Pham Thai Ha, Deputy Director of Project Management Board 7 (the unit assigned to represent the competent State agency) said that because the plan to repay the budget capital advanced to invest in the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I worth VND 7,172.32 billion has not yet been finalized by the competent authority, the investor has studied 2 plans to repay the state budget portion in the financial plan of the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project.

Specifically, with option 1, the investor does not repay the state budget immediately after signing the project contract, the calculated payback period is 21 years and 3 months.

According to Project Management Board 7, this option has a toll collection period suitable to the credit supply capacity of the funding banks, so it is highly feasible for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project when implemented under the PPP method.

Option 2, the budget is refunded from toll revenue of the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project under the PPP method.

With this plan, the calculation results show that the payback period for the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project is up to 32 years and 2 months, making it impossible to mobilize capital to implement the project, even leading to the risk of overlapping fees because it is very difficult to separate specific toll revenue for payback.

“Finding a suitable solution to repay the state budget capital advanced to invest in the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway Construction Project Phase I is a prerequisite to be able to activate the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Expansion Investment Project under the PPP method in accordance with the direction of the Government's leaders,” the leader of Project Management Board 7 assessed.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/loi-mo-giup-nang-doi-cao-toc-tphcm---trung-luong---my-thuan-d384511.html