Ho Chi Minh City prioritizes choosing domestic contractors to build metro line 2

This information was provided by the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) in response to a reporter from the Finance and Investment Newspaper at a press conference on the socio -economic situation of Ho Chi Minh City held on the afternoon of December 4th.

MAUR representative said that Metro Line 2 Project (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) has been approved by the City Party Committee and People's Committee to stop using ODA capital and switch to using all of the City's budget capital.

The project applies specific and special policy mechanisms of Resolution 188/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly and the amended Law on Bidding and the Law on Railways.

Ho Chi Minh City's metro line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) is using Japanese technology.

Regarding the selection of construction contractors, MAUR informed that the City prioritizes using domestic contractors with sufficient capacity and experience to implement the Project in order to localize and receive technology from foreign contractors.

Regarding the bidding method, before bidding, MAUR and the Project consultants organized an international conference to inform and consult on the overall contractor selection strategy including design, procurement and construction (EPC package).

MAUR then reported to the City People's Committee to select a contractor according to the EPC model for the entire project.

Regarding the technology used in metro line 2, MAUR said that the City People's Committee approved the technology plan with the main foundation being the European standard system, including a train system with the highest level of automation (GoA4) according to the current world trend.

Previously, in mid-November 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee set the start date for metro line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) on January 15, 2026, with construction starting on January 16, 2026.

Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong), over 11 km long, was approved in 2010 with an initial total investment of 1.3 billion USD (equivalent to 26,000 billion VND).
By 2019, the Project's total investment was adjusted to 2.1 billion USD (nearly 47,900 billion VND), of which ODA loans accounted for 37,487 billion VND from 3 main sponsors: Asian Development Bank (ADB), German Reconstruction Bank (KfW) and European Investment Bank (EIB).
Due to difficulties in securing financing for the project because of changes in loan conditions from international donors, Ho Chi Minh City has decided to switch to investing using its own budget.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tphcm-uu-tien-chon-nha-thau-trong-nuoc-lam-tuyen-metro-so-2-d450787.html