​Vietnam seeks investment in North-South Expressway

By Doan Loan   May 17, 2019 | 05:00 pm PT
​Vietnam seeks investment in North-South Expressway
Vietnam’s rapid economic growth in recent years has put pressure on its aging infrastructure. Photo by VnExpress/Vo Thanh
Vietnam is soliciting domestic and foreign investment in eight components of the North-South Expressway as it seeks to improve infrastructure for its robust economy.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said at a forum Friday that the public-private partnership (PPP) model would be adopted for them and global accounting companies Deloitte and Ernst & Young would help review the financial structure of the projects and prepare bid invitations and contracts. 

The forum attracted 100 local investors and 50 from South Korea, Japan, China and other countries.

"The process of selecting investors has been researched thoroughly, complying with Vietnamese and foreign laws to guarantee fairness, competitiveness and transparency."

Nguyen Viet Huy, deputy head of the Ministry of Transport’s public-private partnership department, said government funds for land acquisition have been allocated and local authorities would be responsible for acquiring land.

Huy said 80 investors have collected bidding documents for the projects, many from Japan, South Korea and China, and more are likely to join them in the next two months.

But the government has not approved risk-sharing policies related to currency conversion guarantees and revenue guarantees, he said.

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth in recent years has put pressure on its aging infrastructure, and it is in the process of upgrading it.

Eleven components of the North-South Expressway are among the government’s top priorities this year. Three of them are publicly funded and the rest will be built under PPP model.

They are expected to cost VND118 trillion ($5.06 billion), with VND55 trillion ($2.36 billion) coming from the government.

Together, they will stretch 654 kilometers as part of the 2,000-kilometer expressway from Nam Dinh near Hanoi to Vinh Long Province to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

The expressway is scheduled to be finished in 2025.

 
 
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