Submit to the National Assembly two additional specific policies for the North-South high-speed railway

VTV.vn - The Government submitted to the National Assembly two main groups of specific contents for the North-South high-speed railway project related to site clearance.

On the afternoon of December 8, on behalf of the Prime Minister, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh presented to the National Assembly a report on a number of specific mechanisms and policies applicable to the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

Accordingly, the Government proposed to include in the Joint Resolution of the session two special specific policies to implement the North-South high-speed railway project.

Policy 1 : Separate the compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works with voltage of 110 kV or higher of the Project into independent projects, with funding allocated from the central and local budgets.

Localities and Vietnam Electricity Group are the competent authorities to organize, decide on investment, and implement compensation, support, and resettlement projects in the area. Investment in items related to this content does not require investment policy preparation.

The central budget capital is allocated directly to localities and Vietnam Electricity Group for implementation; in case the central budget has not been allocated in time, localities can proactively balance the local budget for implementation, the central budget will refund the local budget after balancing the capital. The Government is assigned to provide detailed instructions on this item.

Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh

Regarding the reason for the selection, the Minister said that the 2024 Law on Public Investment stipulates that "The competent authority when approving the investment policy of important national projects, group A, group B, group C projects has the right to decide whether or not to separate the compensation, support, resettlement, and site clearance contents into independent component projects"; the Law on Public Investment does not stipulate the separation of a project into independent projects. Thus, the separation into independent projects is under the decision-making authority of the National Assembly .

The separation into an independent project has the following advantages: compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works will be implemented independently and in parallel with the preparation of the Feasibility Study Report, central budget capital will be transferred directly to localities (in case the local budget is not balanced enough), Vietnam Electricity Group will not go through the Ministry of Construction so the implementation progress can be accelerated.

Besides, in case localities need to adjust the site clearance project, they will proactively implement it without depending on the Project, thus reducing procedures and order, and increasing decentralization for localities.

"To ensure the progress of the Project implementation, it is necessary to allow localities to advance budget resources, arrange local budget resources or proactively balance non-budgetary capital sources within their authority to carry out compensation, support and resettlement, increasing proactiveness and speeding up the implementation progress," said Minister Tran Hong Minh.

Policy 2: During the period when the National Assembly is not in session, the National Assembly authorizes the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and decide on additional and adjusted mechanisms and specific policies for investment methods (if any) to promptly implement the Project and report to the National Assembly at the nearest session.

According to the Minister of Construction, the project has a particularly large scope, scale, total investment, long implementation time, complex technology and techniques, many new fields, and is being implemented for the first time in Vietnam, so it is not possible to foresee all the difficulties and obstacles as well as the requirements for special mechanisms and policies to successfully organize and implement the project, so the National Assembly has issued the above regulations for the form of public investment, not yet applied to other forms of investment.

Besides, to ensure the progress of the Project and create conditions for the private sector to participate in the Project, in case it is necessary to supplement new mechanisms and policies, the National Assembly can authorize the National Assembly Standing Committee to decide.

According to Mr. Minh, this mechanism has also been allowed by the National Assembly to be applied to the investment project to build the North-South Expressway in the West, Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) - Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc). The implementation of the rights of the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Government must ensure compliance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Proposal to clarify the concept of "independent project"

During the review, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai said that with policy 1, the Committee found that the National Assembly's permission to separate the content of land recovery, compensation, support, and resettlement of an important national project into a component project had a precedent in Resolution No. 38/2017/QH14 for the Long Thanh International Airport Project.

Therefore, the Government's proposal to separate the work of compensation, support, resettlement and relocation of power works from 110 kV and above of the North-South high-speed railway project into a separate project is well-founded.

However, the appraisal agency also proposed to clarify the concept of "independent project"; clearly determine the preliminary total investment, recovered land area, completion time of independent projects and the synchronization and unity of the entire Project; ensure not to cause difficulties or waste resources when the route direction, scope, implementation boundary have not been determined and the total investment of the Project is strictly controlled.

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee Phan Van Mai

Regarding policy 2, the Economic and Financial Committee found that Clause 18, Article 3 of Resolution No. 172 dated November 30, 2024 of the National Assembly on investment policy for the Project stipulated: During the time the National Assembly is not in session, the National Assembly authorizes the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and decide to supplement and adjust specific and special mechanisms and policies for the Project.

At the same time, in Clause 14 of the Resolution of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the National Assembly approved the addition of investment forms under the Investment Law in the form of public-private partnership and business investment under the Investment Law for the North-South high-speed railway project in addition to the form of public investment; assigning the Government to organize the selection of investment forms and investors according to regulations; in case there are other mechanisms and policies beyond the authority of the Government, it shall report to the National Assembly for consideration and decision. Therefore, the proposal of the above policy is unnecessary.

Source: https://vtv.vn/trinh-quoc-hoi-bo-sung-2-chinh-sach-dac-thu-cho-duong-sat-toc-do-cao-bac-nam-100251208152724859.htm