The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has submitted a report to the Government Standing Committee outlining the investment plan for expanding the Ho Chi Minh City–Long Thanh Expressway.

The MOT agrees with the State Capital Management Committee’s assessment that the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) is fully capable of serving as the project’s investor and managing, operating, and maintaining the HCMC–Long Thanh Expressway.

According to the MOT, assigning VEC to handle the expansion offers several advantages compared to public investment or Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models:

1.     Utilizing State-Owned Enterprise Resources
This approach aligns with VEC’s establishment goals, ensuring consistency in the operation and management of expressways. It sets the stage for future expansions of other expressways managed by VEC.

2.     Asset Ownership Compatibility
VEC is in the process of acquiring formal ownership of the expressway’s assets through increased charter capital, making it the appropriate entity for this project.

3.     No Use of Public Investment Funds
The project will not rely on public investment, thereby reducing the strain on the national budget.

4.     Shorter Project Timelines
Delegating the project to VEC will shorten implementation time.

5.     Avoiding Conflicts of Interest

Assigning the project to VEC eliminates potential conflicts of interest that could arise if a new entity were introduced under the PPP model.

The report likened this funding and operational model to other state-owned enterprises such as the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam, which manage aviation infrastructure.

The proposed project involves expanding a 22-kilometer stretch of the HCMC–Long Thanh Expressway:

Section 1: From the Ring Road 2 interchange in HCMC (Km 4+000) to the Ring Road 3 interchange (Km 8+770), the expressway will be expanded to 8 lanes.

Section 2: From the Ring Road 3 interchange (Km 8+770) to the Bien Hoa–Vung Tau Expressway interchange (Km 25+920), the expressway will be expanded to 10 lanes.

The project is estimated to cost approximately 14.955 trillion VND (excluding land clearance costs), broken down as follows: Equity: 5.555 trillion VND (37%); Commercial loans: 9.400 trillion VND (63%)

VEC will secure 100% of the investment capital to execute the project and operate the expressway, recovering costs through toll collection. Land clearance will be handled as an independent project funded by the central and local governments of HCMC and Dong Nai.

If approved by the relevant authorities, the project’s preparation phase will take place from 2024 to 2025, with construction scheduled from 2025 to 2027.

N. Huyen