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| Mai Son Expressway - National Highway 45. Photo: Duc Thanh |
Divergence in 2 stages
More than a month after receiving instructions from Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, in the middle of last week, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) issued Document No. 1999/BC-VEC-HDTV reporting to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction on an investment plan to upgrade and expand the eastern sections of the North-South Expressway.
It should be added that in Notice No. 266/TB-VPCP dated May 27, 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha directed VEC to urgently and proactively propose a plan (VEC presides over the whole project or VEC cooperates with domestic state-owned and private enterprises, proposes accompanying mechanisms and policies) to invest in upgrading and expanding the eastern sections of the North-South Expressway, and send it to the Ministry of Construction on June 2, 2025; the Ministry of Construction shall organize the assessment and comparison of the plans to propose to the Prime Minister the most effective plan.
In Notice No. 323/TB-VPCP dated June 26, 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha continued to assign the Ministry of Finance to direct VEC to study two investment options as proposed by the Ministry of Construction, clarify financial capacity, experience and capital mobilization ability, and send them to the Ministry of Construction for synthesis before June 27, 2025.
Previously, the Ministry of Construction proposed two investment options to expand 15 component projects using public investment capital under the Project to Invest in Some Sections of the Eastern North-South Expressway in the 2017-2020 period and the Project to Invest in the Eastern North-South Expressway in the 2017-2020 period.
With option 1, the Ministry of Construction combines the North-South expressways in the East into one project for investment (including 15 expressways), with a total length of about 966 km and a total investment of about 128,292 billion VND (excluding interest during construction).
With option 2, the Ministry of Construction proposed to split into 2 projects (one project for each area). Of which, Project 1 includes 8 component projects from Mai Son to Cam Lo, with a total length of about 415 km, total investment of about 54,182 billion VND (excluding interest during construction); Project 2 includes 7 component projects from Quang Ngai to Dau Giay, with a total length of about 551 km, total investment of 74,110 billion VND (excluding interest during construction).
In Document No. 1999/BC-VEC-HDTV, Mr. Truong Viet Dong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of VEC, said that, implementing the direction of the Government leaders, VEC has urgently worked with the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and a number of enterprises currently constructing on the route, which have proven their reputation, quality and efficiency, to study investment cooperation for the two options proposed by the Ministry of Construction.
The principle of expanding 15 components of the North-South Expressway in the East set by VEC is to avoid the situation where the project has just been completed and then has to be demolished for expansion, causing waste and creating negative public opinion while resources are still limited; some routes connecting to the expressway and major economic centers need to be prioritized for investment, reducing the burden on the state budget so that resources can be focused on investing in some important projects such as the North-South high-speed railway.
Based on the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the two options, VEC proposed to invest in expanding the eastern sections of the North-South Expressway according to option 2.
However, to be consistent with the capacity, experience, equity capital participating in the implementation and the ability to mobilize capital from credit institutions to expand the North-South expressway routes in the East; ensure synchronous and continuous project implementation; facilitate construction work, be consistent with transportation needs, avoid legal conflicts with contractors performing warranty work on expressways, VEC recommends dividing the investment of option 2 into 2 phases.
Specifically, Phase I will be expanded from 2026, corresponding to the end of the warranty period of the contractors of the previous phase (around June 2026), including 3 component projects in the Northern region: Mai Son - National Highway 45, National Highway 45 - Nghi Son, Nghi Son - Dien Chau, with a total length of about 156 km and a total investment of about 19,523 billion VND (belonging to Project 1); 2 component projects in the Southern region: Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet - Dau Giay, with a total length of about 200 km, a total investment of about 17,843 billion VND (belonging to Project 2).
In phase II, VEC proposed to implement expansion investment after the warranty period of the contractors in the previous phase ends (after 2028) and when the traffic volume of the expressway sections is at full load with a scale of 4 lanes for the remaining 10 expressway component projects, with a total length of 610 km, and a total investment of VND 90,926 billion.
Define roles
In Document No. 1999/BC-VEC-HDTV, VEC proposed that the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Finance consider the report to preside over cooperation with SCIC and a number of other investors to study the expansion of Project 1 of the North-South Expressway in the East, with a total investment of about 61,738 billion VND (including interest during the construction period of 7,556 billion VND) and carry out investment phases.
Accordingly, in phase I (investment implementation period 2026 - 2028), VEC will coordinate to invest in expanding 3 expressways from Mai Son to Dien Chau under Project 1 with a length of 156 km, total investment of about 22,243 billion VND, payback period of 12 years.
In phase II, VEC will invest in expanding the expressways from Bai Vot to Cam Lo under Project 1 (including 5 expressways) namely Bai Vot - Ham Nghi, Ham Nghi - Vung Ang, Vung Ang - Bung, Bung - Van Ninh, Van Ninh - Cam Lo, with a total length of about 259 km, a total investment of 39,495 billion VND, and a payback period of 18 years.
For Project 2, VEC proposed that the Government assign other investors with sufficient capacity and experience to carry out the investment in order to allocate resources reasonably and avoid spreading investment.
In case of being assigned to research and invest in expanding Project 1 mentioned above, VEC proposes that the Government allow VEC to retain the remaining profit in the period of 2025 - 2030 (about 4,769 billion VND) to supplement the equity capital to participate in the investment in expanding Project 1.
In addition, immediately after being assigned by the competent authority to invest in expanding the projects (selecting investors), VEC proposed that the competent authority allow the project enterprise to collect tolls right on the expressways that were invested with public investment capital in the previous phase, with tolls equivalent to the tolls that PPP project enterprises are collecting on other expressways, in order to minimize the state budget support for the project.
It is known that the above proposed plan is being evaluated by a number of investors, including the investor who submitted the investment proposal to expand the North-South Expressway as an independent investor, as suitable, feasible and ready to cooperate with VEC to implement Project 1 immediately after being approved by competent authorities.
Mr. Truong Viet Dong said that with experience as an investor in 7 expressway projects, of which 4 projects have been put into operation and collected tolls, VEC has enough capacity in investment management and operation when assigned by the Prime Minister to invest in expanding the Eastern North-South expressway routes under the PPP method.
In addition, with a charter capital of about VND 39,366 billion, according to current regulations, VEC is allowed to mobilize capital for production and business not exceeding 3 times the enterprise's equity, corresponding to the capital that can be mobilized up to VND 118,098 billion. The above charter capital scale helps VEC meet the capacity to mobilize capital to participate in the expansion of the North-South expressway in the East.
It should be added that for Project 2, the Ministry of Construction has received a number of proposals from a number of major domestic investors. The most notable of these is the proposal by Son Hai Group to expand the existing 679 km long North-South Expressway section from Quang Ngai to Dau Giay (Dong Nai), from 4 lanes to 6 lanes under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
“We commit to arranging all capital sources (including equity and legally mobilized capital) ourselves, not using budget capital; construction time is no more than 24 months and the project warranty is 10 years,” said Mr. Nguyen Viet Hai, Chairman of Son Hai Group.
The investment project for some sections of the North-South Expressway in the East in the period of 2017-2020 includes 11 component projects (8 public investment projects and 3 PPP investment projects) with a total length of 654 km. The project has been completed and put into operation with a scale of 2-4 lanes and site clearance of 4-6 lanes. The Cao Bo - Mai Son section is being invested in expanding from 4 lanes to 6 complete lanes (expected to be completed in 2026) and the Cam Lo - La Son section is being invested in expanding from 2 lanes to 4 complete lanes (expected to be completed in 2026).
The North-South Eastern Expressway Investment Project for the 2017-2020 period includes 12 component projects (public investment) with a total length of 721 km, a scale of 4 limited lanes, and site clearance for 4-6 lanes. These component projects have been and are being implemented, expected to be completed by the end of 2025 (with 4 projects) and 2026 (8 projects).
Projects invested by BOT investors (total length of 234 km) include the Huu Nghi - Chi Lang border gate section under construction with 4 lanes (expected to be completed in 2026); the Hanoi - Bac Ninh - Bac Giang section is currently operating with 4 lanes; the Bac Giang - Lang Son section is currently operating with 4 lanes; the Phap Van - Cau Gie section is currently operating with 6 lanes; the Trung Luong - My Thuan section is currently operating with 4 lanes, and has decided to expand the investment to 6 lanes.
The expressways that VEC has invested in and is investing in (total length 295 km), with 4 standard lanes, include Cau Gie - Ninh Binh, Da Nang - Quang Ngai, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay, Ben Luc - Long Thanh.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/nga-re-moi-cho-phuong-an-mo-rong-cao-toc-bac---nam-phia-dong-d326335.html
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