Vu Hong Thanh, chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, said the construction aims to concretise the 10-year socio-economic development strategy for 2021-30, which was approved by the 13th Party Congress.

Thanh made the statement on Monday morning at the third session of the 15-tenure National Assembly.

At the same time, the investment in the expressways will promote the socio-economic development of the localities which the expressways run through, helping to enhance the assurance of national defence and security, he said.

However, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the urgency, the ability to allocate resources and the impact of using public investment capital to deploy many infrastructure projects at the same time on inflation, disbursement capacity, capital absorption and efficiency, as well as the ability to cause scarcity and increase in raw building material prices, he said.

Thanh also said that it is appropriate when the Government proposed to apply the public investment model instead of the public-private partnership model to the projects building expressways of Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot and Chau Doc-Can Tho-Soc Trang, because these two routes have low vehicle traffic and long payback periods.

The committee also agreed with the proposal of the Government to apply the model of public-private partnership to the project of building the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway, he said.

It is imperative to attract the private sector to participate in the investment in building the expressway while the State investment is used to deploy many major transport infrastructure projects at the same time, he said.

Besides, the committee concurred with the proposal to build Ring Road 4 in Hanoi and Ring Road 3 in HCM City, he said.

The committee required a full assessment of the ability to disburse and absorb capital, and balance efficiency in resource allocation, management capacity, and human resources, as well as the ability to cause scarcity and increase in raw building material prices, he said.

Based on the assessment, timely solutions will be made to ensure the feasibility, efficiency, progress and quality of the two projects, he added.

Government’s proposal

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The presented the proposal of the Government to build the expressways on Monday morning.

The said the investment to build the expressways aims to meet the increasing transportation demand, solve traffic infrastructure bottlenecks in the southern key economic region, and exploit the advantages of the Central Highlands and the Mekong River Delta.

It also helps in improving the national competitiveness of the Central Highlands, south-central coast, south-east region and Mekong River Delta, creating a premise, motivation and new space for socio-economic development, contributing to national defence and security, he said.

The said the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau Expressway is 53.7 km long, running through two provinces, connecting Bien Hoa City with Cái Mep-Thi Vai seaport. It is set to have four to six lanes in the first phase of the project.

The Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot Expressway is 117.5 km long, running through two provinces, connecting Buon Ma Thuot City with Nam Van Phong seaport. It is set to have four lanes in the first phase of the project.

The Chau Doc-Can Tho-Soc Trang Expressway is 188.2 km long, running through four localities, connecting Chau Doc City with Tran De seaport. It is set to have four lanes in the first phase of the project.

For the two projects of building Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot Expressway and Chau Doc-Can Tho-Soc Trang Expressway, the Government proposes to invest in the public investment model, he said.

After being put into operation, fees will be collected to return the State budget capital, he said.

The said the capital demand to implement the three projects in the period of 2021-25 will be about VND60.1 trillion (US$2.58 billion) and about VND24.3 trillion ($1.04 billion) from 2026 to 2030.

Also at the session, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, who presented the pre-feasibility study report to build Ring Road 4 in Hanoi and Ring Road 3 in HCM City, said the two projects play the role of linking the region, promoting the development of urbanisation and having great significance for socio-economic development.

The investment and completion of the two projects will contribute to improving the competitiveness of the economy, increasing traffic connectivity between provinces in the regions, stretching the population density in urban areas and reducing pressure on inner-city traffic and existing roads, he said.

Ring Road 4 in Hanoi has a length of 112.8 km, running through Hanoi (58.2km); Hung Yen Province (19.3km) and Bac Ninh Province (25.6km).

Ring Road 3 in HCM City is 76.34 km long, running through HCM City (47.51 km); Dong Nai Province (11.26km); Binh Duong (10.76km) and Long An (6.81km).

The preliminary total investment in the first phase of the project to build the Ring Road 4 is estimated to be about VND85.8 trillion ($3.67 billion), using the State budget’s capital and Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) investors' capital, of which BOT capital is VND29.4 trillion ($1.25 billion).

The preliminary total investment in the first phase of the Ring Road 3 project is about VND75.3 trillion ($3.22 billion) from the State budget.

Source: Vietnam News