The National Assembly builds a "policy highway" to let traffic go first and pave the way.

One day in October, although it was already autumn, at the construction site of the Bai Vot - Ham Nghi expressway, part of the North - South Eastern Expressway project in the 2021-2022 period, the harsh hot weather of the Central region still made the construction workers sweat profusely.

While wiping away sweat, Mr. Le Van Quyet (in Hanoi , an officer in charge of constructing the Bai Vot - Ham Nghi expressway through Quang Loc, Trung Loc and Xuan Loc communes) said that he has not been able to visit home for 2 months.

“Right after completing the Phan Thiet – Dau Giay project phase 1, all of the construction workers, nearly 100 people, moved to the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi project to work. Each of us was in a different place, and during peak construction periods, we had to be far away from home. When we had the chance, we took turns going home to visit, each time only lasting 2-3 days,” said Mr. Quyet.

During Tet, some are assigned to visit their families first, while the rest stay on duty and continue construction work at the site. Most recently, during the September 2nd holiday, all workers were mobilized to stay and "fight" during the holiday to take advantage of favorable weather conditions, with construction starting at 4am and ending at 10pm.

On the morning of August 18, from the main bridge at the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project in Dak Lak province, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh launched the peak emulation campaign "500 days and nights of emulation to complete 3,000km of expressway".

The momentum passed down from the head of the Government helps the construction team directly gain more motivation, according to Mr. Le Van Quyet.

Building a synchronous and modern infrastructure system is one of the three strategic breakthroughs identified by the Party long ago, but at the 13th Party Congress, this goal was specified for each project and each kilometer of highway that needed to be completed.

The specific goal set out in the 13th Party Congress document is “By 2030, strive to have about 5,000km of expressway nationwide, of which by 2025, complete the North-South expressway in the East; build Long Thanh International Airport and expand Noi Bai International Airport; invest in improving the capacity of the seaport system; pay due attention to developing railway traffic, deploy the construction of a number of North-South high-speed railway sections; synchronously connect the transport system with economic zones, industrial parks, airports, seaports; speed up the construction of urban railway lines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and solve traffic infrastructure bottlenecks”.

In addition, the Party emphasized prioritizing investment in transport infrastructure for the Mekong Delta, the Northern mountainous region and other disadvantaged areas; enhancing the capacity of the infrastructure system to respond to climate change, especially in the Mekong Delta and preventing flooding in Ho Chi Minh City.

Looking back at the past period, road traffic infrastructure has developed strongly.

The national highway system is basically complete, including longitudinal, transverse, and radial axes as well as the beltway system, conveniently connecting with the expressway system and local roads.

Many key, modern projects have been completed and put into operation, such as the expressways: Hanoi - Lao Cai, Bac Giang - Lang Son, Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh - Mong Cai, La Son - Tuy Loan, Da Nang - Quang Ngai, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay; Deo Ca, Hai Van, Cu Mong tunnels, etc.

Large bridges crossing rivers and seas such as Tan Vu - Lach Huyen, Bach Dang, Nhat Tan, Cao Lanh, Vam Cong bridges, etc. have also been exploited and promoted effectively, contributing to promoting the socio-economic development of the areas through which the route passes.

By 2020, the total length of expressways nationwide was only about 1,163km. However, since the beginning of the 2021-2025 term, this number has changed significantly. By mid-August, the country had completed about 1,000km of expressways passing through 15 provinces and cities, bringing the total number of expressways to nearly 2,100km; projects under construction total over 1,700km and about 1,400km about to start. The projects span 48 provinces and cities across the country.

“Up to now, the whole country is a large construction site of large projects and works. We have up to 40 large projects and 92 component projects,” National Assembly delegate Trinh Xuan An, Standing Member of the National Defense and Security Committee, emphasized the leading role of transport infrastructure in socio-economic development.

One special thing he pointed out compared to the previous period is that while previously, the development of transport infrastructure was relatively localized in some localities, during this term it has spread to all regions of the country.

The above figures, according to delegate Trinh Xuan An, are proof that we are on the right track in implementing the goals set by the Party Congress, putting transport infrastructure ahead to pave the way, be the vanguard, and be the trigger for socio-economic development. These figures also show the belief in achieving the goals set by the Party Congress, and at the same time demonstrate the policy, direction, and management that is clear and decisive from top to bottom.

Despite many achievements, the implementation of key transport infrastructure projects in reality also encounters many difficulties arising from a number of inappropriate regulations or regulations that are no longer appropriate in the new period.

Therefore, important decisions of the 15th National Assembly since the beginning of its term have helped to untie and remove barriers to open up investment policies and promote the construction progress of a series of important transport projects.

"There has never been a term in which the National Assembly decided on as many major policies and projects as the XV term," according to delegate Trinh Xuan An.

At the beginning of 2022, the National Assembly held its first extraordinary session to pass Resolution 43 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the economic recovery and development program.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the country faces many challenges and needs strong motivation to recover and develop.

That is the reason why the National Assembly decided to hold an extraordinary meeting to pass Resolution 43 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the socio-economic recovery and development program.

In particular, the National Assembly resolved to supplement a maximum of more than 113,000 billion VND in investment capital from the State budget to develop infrastructure with the orientation of prioritizing capital allocation for important national projects.

With this resolution, the National Assembly also empowers the Prime Minister and heads of competent agencies to decide on bidding in 2022 and 2023 for a number of bidding packages of important, urgent, large-scale infrastructure projects.

The Prime Minister is also given the authority to decide on decentralization to the People's Committees of localities with sufficient capacity and experience to act as the competent authority to implement public investment expressway sections passing through the area.

The National Assembly's Resolution also "unleashes" and allows that in 2022 and 2023, construction contractors do not have to carry out procedures for granting a License to exploit minerals for common construction materials, in order to remove obstacles in the source of raw materials for construction of traffic projects.

According to the assessment of National Assembly delegates, the Resolution of the National Assembly is imbued with practical requirements and demonstrates sharing and accompanying the issues raised in the Government's management, especially with transport infrastructure projects.

At the 3rd session (June 2022), the 15th National Assembly passed a Resolution on investment policies for the following projects: Ring Road 4 of the Hanoi Capital Region; Ring Road 3 of Ho Chi Minh City; Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway Phase 1; Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Phase 1; Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway Phase 1.

This is the first time that a National Assembly session has made a decision on investment policies for five key transport projects, creating a breakthrough in transport infrastructure between regions across the country.

In preparation for the 3rd session, the preparation of the documents for the 5 transport projects to be submitted to the National Assembly was the most difficult and time-consuming task for the agencies of the National Assembly and the Government. The National Assembly Standing Committee held many informal sessions and 3 official sessions to give opinions on these 5 projects.

The State Budget Law does not allow the budget of one level to be used for another level. In principle, investment in expressways is the responsibility of the Central Government, while parallel roads and beltways are the responsibility of localities. However, in the context of the Central Government's budget being in difficulty, while localities have a large source of revenue from land, the National Assembly finds it necessary to allow the Central Government and localities to work together.

The Road Traffic Law also stipulates that expressways and national highways are managed by the Ministry of Transport, while provincial roads and lower are managed by localities. However, if these 5 major road projects are approved by the National Assembly, the Ministry of Transport will be "overloaded" with managing too many projects. Therefore, the locality where the project passes must be assigned to represent the competent State agency.

This plan is not in accordance with the provisions of the Road Traffic Law, but according to the National Assembly, in the urgent situation at that time, it was necessary to allow implementation different from the provisions of the law.

Therefore, the Ring Road 3 and Ring Road 4 projects are assigned to the localities. Ho Chi Minh City is the focal agency of the Ring Road 3 project; Hanoi is the focal agency of the Ring Road 4 project.

The consistent viewpoint and unified policy of the National Assembly at that time was that it was necessary to apply a number of special, exceptional, and specific mechanisms and policies, and only apply them to specific projects during the economic recovery period after the pandemic.

At the time this content was discussed in the Dien Hong hall, some National Assembly delegates were concerned that expanding the special policy mechanism applied in these 5 transport projects could lead to complicated legal and organizational consequences, causing negative consequences in management and reducing efficiency.

However, the National Assembly at that time emphasized the view that, in this special period when the country has just experienced many difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and is having to accelerate the process of economic and social recovery and development, it is necessary to have special, specific policies, different from the provisions of current laws, to implement these projects.

Five major transport projects approved in one session, according to delegate Trinh Xuan An, is a record number. “This number shows that we have done things that seemed impossible, because five projects sound simple, but to prepare and make decisions for those five projects is very difficult, but the National Assembly has done it,” Mr. An shared.

The delegate added that the decision here is not just for the National Assembly to "press a button to finish", but also to take on great responsibility and accountability, accompanying the Government.

To accelerate the completion of the traffic system, at the 5th session, the Resolution on the investment policy of the traffic road project from National Highway 27C to Provincial Road DT.656 of Khanh Hoa province - connecting with Lam Dong province and Ninh Thuan province was approved by the National Assembly. The investment policy of the North - South Expressway construction investment project, the western section of Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) - Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc), approved by the National Assembly at the 7th session, also continues to contribute to completing the traffic picture across the country.

But in reality, the simultaneous deployment of a series of expressways has also given rise to many problems, and immediately, to resolve these bottlenecks, the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly passed a Resolution to pilot a number of special mechanisms and policies on investment in the construction of road traffic works.

This Resolution is of special importance, untying many obstacles by allowing an increase in the proportion of State capital participating in investment projects under the public-private partnership method to no more than 70% of the total investment (instead of 50% as currently); assigning the People's Committee at the provincial level with the ability to arrange investment capital from the local budget (including support capital from the central budget) to act as the competent authority to implement investment in expressways passing through the locality.

The National Assembly also delegated the authority to the Prime Minister to consider and decide to assign a provincial People's Committee as the competent authority to implement investment in road traffic projects through many localities and use the budget of one locality to support investment capital for another locality to invest in project implementation.

To remove obstacles in the exploitation of minerals for construction materials, the National Assembly allows investors and construction contractors to not have to carry out procedures for granting a license to exploit minerals for common construction materials.

These decisions were issued immediately following the one-session process, contributing to removing obstacles in the past time, aiming to speed up the progress of traffic projects.

In a general assessment, delegate Trinh Xuan An said that the resolutions and special mechanisms issued by the National Assembly are the legal easing and orientation, creating openness for project implementation.

That shows that in terms of policy, the National Assembly is very sympathetic, very close to reality and very practical.

“If the country wants good infrastructure, the National Assembly must create a legal corridor. If we want a large highway, we must have a policy highway, and the National Assembly has done that,” Mr. An emphasized that this is an indispensable mark of the National Assembly in promptly issuing mechanisms and policies and having practical solutions.

When adjusting policies or issuing specific mechanisms to resolve problems arising in practice, according to Mr. Trinh Xuan An, it will immediately affect the legal system, so we need to be more flexible in policy making, with the spirit of "fixing problems", if we need to change anything that is beneficial to development, we should boldly change it immediately.

“The National Assembly is moving in that direction, meaning we have overcome the barrier of thinking that the law has already been established and that if there is a problem, we do not dare to change it immediately. Instead, legal policies are being adjusted very promptly to serve life and development,” said delegate An.

Delegate Pham Van Thinh (Bac Giang) also highly appreciated a series of decisions of the National Assembly such as allocating medium-term public investment capital to focus on strategic transport infrastructure; resources of the economic recovery support package after the Covid-19 pandemic are mainly for transport infrastructure investment; converting expressway projects planned under the PPP method to public investment; increasing the budget capital ratio to over 70% for expressway projects under the PPP method if necessary; piloting mechanisms and policies towards streamlining administrative procedures and removing legal obstacles in exploiting raw materials for embankment and highway foundations, etc.

“The Government’s proposals and recommendations on removing difficulties and obstacles to implement strategic transport infrastructure projects have been considered, discussed and commented on by the National Assembly for effective and timely solutions, which are of great significance in this difficult context,” said Mr. Thinh.

According to him, those policies have contributed significantly to changing the face of traffic infrastructure across the country, especially since the beginning of the 13th Party Congress and 15th National Assembly.

Content: Hoai Thu, Ngoc Tan

Design: Tuan Huy

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/quoc-hoi-xay-cao-toc-chinh-sach-de-giao-thong-di-truoc-mo-duong-20241103085242576.htm