On February 16, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the State Steering Committee for Important National Projects and Focal Projects in the Transport sector, chaired the 9th session of the Steering Committee.
ALLOCATING RESOURCES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BREAKTHROUGH
In his speech at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the whole country is promoting three growth drivers, including investment, which includes domestic investment, foreign investment, private investment, and all-social investment.
Emphasizing the important role of public investment in leading, activating all social resources for development investment, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that in 2024, the whole country will allocate VND 657,000 trillion for public investment, mainly in transportation infrastructure investment, and strive to achieve a disbursement rate of at least 95%.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the implementation of important national and focal transport projects is difficult, both in terms of scale, target, scope, with a total investment of VND 422,000 trillion in 2024.
Together with the effective promotion of growth drivers, focusing on disbursement of public investment, with operational transport projects, it will contribute to reducing logistics costs for businesses, reducing input costs, and increasing the competitiveness of products, businesses, and the economy. At the same time, creating new development space because wherever there is a road, it opens up new development space, especially for industrial development, urban areas, services, etc.
“This affirms that the Party and the State’s determination to focus on implementing three strategic breakthroughs, especially breakthroughs in infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, is a right and wise choice that decides short-term and long-term development,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Also according to the Head of Government, in the past years, investment and development of transport infrastructure have been promoted, creating a movement, trend, not only at the central level but also at local level.
2021-2022 is the period of commencement, preparation, and approval of projects, 2023 is the year of simultaneous implementation, and 2024 is identified as the year of accelerating the implementation of key transport projects.
Looking back at 2023, the Prime Minister assessed that this was a successful year in terms of infrastructure development, one of the three strategic breakthroughs. The Prime Minister also praised the localities, ministries, sectors, investors, contractors, consultants, and the people who had a project that went through many efforts, synchronous implementation, especially with the working spirit of “working through Tet, working through holidays”, “enduring heat, overcoming rain”, “working 3 shifts, 4 shifts”, “eating opportunely, sleeping urgently”, promoting the implementation of transport infrastructure projects, the more they do, the more mature they become in terms of thinking, awareness, and action.
Also at the meeting, the Prime Minister also clearly stated that some projects have been delayed due to prolonged investment procedures; slow land clearance; not proactively sourcing materials due to regulatory constraints; policies encouraging units and individuals making efforts to focus on promoting timely projects; related entities need to coordinate closely and effectively…
The Prime Minister requested the delegates attending the meeting to discuss, assess the situation, propose solutions to shorten the progress of projects, ensure the quality, technical/ artistic aspects, labor safety, hygiene, and environmental landscape. At the same time, removing difficulties, obstacles in the use of ODA capital, using sea sand in the construction of transport projects…
OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES, MANY PROJECTS SURPASSING SCHEDULE
Earlier, in 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired 05 sessions of the Steering Committee and along with Deputy Prime Ministers directly inspected project sites; at the same time, he directed and issued many directives, official letters, documents to resolve difficulties and urged ministries, sectors, and localities to carry out their tasks.
At the beginning of the Lunar New Year 2024, the Prime Minister issued 02 dispatches directing agencies and the units to continue to promote the highest sense of responsibility, expedite the progress of implementing projects, transport infrastructure works, and focus on removing difficulties and obstacles related to construction norms, construction prices; exploitation, supply of construction materials.
On the 3rd and 4th days of the lunar New Year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha inspected, wished Tet at 05 major transport projects in Hanoi, HCM City, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces to timely direct, remove difficulties and encourage workers.
With the deep, determined direction of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers, along with close coordination, responsibility, and implementation efforts of ministries, sectors, and localities, many difficulties and long-standing problems in some projects have been resolved. Pre-investment work for projects has been accelerated, many projects have started construction in 2023, and many project works have been completed and put into use, effectively utilizing investment results.
With newly implemented projects, most have achieved or exceeded the set plans; the disbursement results of the projects have reached a high level or exceeded requirements. The Ministries of Planning and Investment, Natural Resources and Environment, Construction, and Finance have completed many tasks assigned by the Prime Minister.
In terms of the progress of implementing key projects, the East of the North-South Expressway project has completed 9/11 component projects in the 2017-2020 phase and the My Thuan-Can Tho project according to the plan, bringing the total length of expressways to 1,892 km, of which only 2023 is 475 km. The remaining two projects are invested in the form of BOT contracts, and the investors and contractors are actively carrying out to complete them in accordance with the Prime Minister’s directives.
Regarding the 12 component projects in the 2021-2025 phase, although the first year of implementation still faces numerous difficulties in terms of land and construction materials, investors and contractors have made efforts to organize construction and closely follow the set progress.
Regarding the 5 highway projects of East-West axis and ring roads, the implementation progress is still slow, except for some packages carried out by Ho Chi Minh City and Long An (Ring Road 3), Hanoi (Ring Road 4), Ba Ria-Vung Tau (Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway), Dak Lak and Khanh Hoa (Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot) competent agencies are carrying out the basic implementation according to the plan.
Other expressway projects such as Tuyen Quang-Ha Giang section through Ha Giang province; Cao Lanh-An Huu; Ben Luc-Long Thanh are being deployed by investors and contractors and sticking to the set progress.
The urban railway project Nhon-Hanoi station and the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien project are being reviewed by Hanoi and HCM City to resolve difficulties in the contract, complete personnel training, complete procedures for fire and explosion prevention, finalize the inspection of works, certify the safety of the system to strive to operate the Nhon-Hanoi section and the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien project in July 2024.
For the Long Thanh International Airport project, packages have been organized for construction such as package 5.10 passenger terminal, construction package of works serving flight management directed by the Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM), and the contractors actively implement in accordance with the set progress.
Unstarted packages of component project 1 of building headquarters of state management agencies, component project 4 of building essential works are being implemented by competent agencies in terms of investment procedures; selecting investors. The T3 passenger terminal package of Tan Son Nhat International Airport is being implemented by ACV for construction, closely following the set progress, so far, the disbursement has reached VND 2,477 billion out of VND 10,825 billion (23%)…
Currently, there are 34 large projects, 86 important national and focal transport projects in 46 provinces and central cities. Including 5 railway projects, 2 airport projects, the remaining are road projects, mainly expressways and ring roads in Hanoi Capital Region, and HCM City ring roads.
In the past, many difficulties and long-standing problems in some projects have been resolved, such as the Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressway project (stalled for many years but has been focused on removing difficulties regarding capital and resolving contract-related disputes to restart and implement the progress according to the plan); T3 terminal project at Tan Son Nhat Airport (difficulties in land clearance); Long Thanh International Airport project (difficulties in selecting contractors, land clearance).
