After 20 years of research, the North-South high-speed railway project has been submitted to the 15th National Assembly's eighth session.

The Party Central Committee, Politburo and the government had previously agreed on the development of the North-South high-speed railway and asked to mobilize all possible resources to implement the project.

With high transport demand and a GDP of $430 billion by 2030, three times higher than that of 2010, and public debt of 37 percent of GDP, it is now time to kick off the project.

The railway, 1,541 kilometers long, is expected to begin in 2027 and be completed by 2035. With the designed speed of 350km/h, it will take 5.5 hours to travel from Hanoi (Ngoc Hoi Station) to HCM City (Thu Thiem Station), or 6.6 times shorter than regular trains.

Explaining the technology to be used for the railway, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said there would be two types of trains. The first has speed of 350km/h, with five stopovers at five major stations. It would take 5.5 hours to travel from the North to the South, including the stopover time.

The second one has the average speed of 280km/h. These trains would mostly run on short-distance routes, for example, from Hanoi to Vinh, or from Nha Trang to HCM City, which would give more choices to passengers. The number of first- or second-type trains will be adjusted, depending on demand.

Choosing contractors

Some experts have expressed concern about the current backward situation of Vietnam’s railway industry. The 100-year-old industry just consists of diesel locomotives that were mostly seen in the late 20th century.

Vietnam now can manufacture D19E locomotives, but mostly with imported equipment. The work done in Vietnam is just assembling, with the localization ratio of 10 percent only.

How will Vietnam deploy the North-South high-speed railway, the biggest ever transport project, with such a backward railway industry? Will the capital slow the implementation pace like what happened with the ongoing metro project?

Thang said previously, when implementing huge railway projects capitalized at billions of dollars or higher, Vietnam mostly relied on ODA (official development assistance) capital, so it had to rely on donors and did not have the right to choose partners.

“This was a big disadvantage and a reason which caused investment capital to jack up. But in the case of the North-South high-speed railway project, we will choose high-quality contractors who can offer reasonable prices and accept to transfer technology,” Thang said, stressing that the choosing of contractors will not depend on foreign loans.

Agreeing with Thang, Pham Van Hoa from the National Assembly's Committee of Legal Affairs, stressed that it is a must to master technology. Foreign companies must cooperate with domestic contractors when attending bids and must negotiate on technology transfer with domestic contractors.

What will domestic enterprises do?

Hoang Van Cuong, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee, said in order to ensure project feasibility and implementation pace, domestic units must have technology transferred, and contractors must be Vietnamese, not foreign. 

Citing urban railway projects under execution, Cuong stressed that if Vietnam allows foreign contractors to implement construction and bring equipment from overseas to install in Vietnam, the country will be reliant on foreign contractors, and the execution time will be prolonged. 

The 500KV transmission line, for example, can be executed at lightening speed, because all package deals are implemented by Vietnamese enterprises. In this case, the government and Prime Minister can urge enterprises and request contractors to speed up project implementation.

He said the government needs to follow the principle: “It doesn’t matter which country’s technology we use, technology transfer to Vietnam is a must”.

Technology transfer is the core feature of the North-South high-speed railway project. Vietnam needs to take the initiative in negotiations to be sure that foreign contractors share knowledge and experience, so that domestic units can improve their capability and become proactive during project implementation.

“Buying a ready-made system will help save money for initial costs. But if we accept to buy the technology and master the technology, we will benefit later, while sustainability will be guaranteed,” Cuong said.

N. Huyen