Some highways will be widened to two lanes.
Delegate Nguyen Van Manh (Vinh Phuc delegation) asked whether investing in some 2-lane highways without emergency lanes is suitable for highway standards or not?
National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue chaired the question and answer session.
According to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, although the budget has spent more than VND375,000 billion on transport infrastructure investment, it has only met 70% of the demand, and it is very difficult to complete the investment in expressways in the context of limited resources. He cited many developed countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia that also divided investment in expressways. The Ministry of Transport has learned from the experience of other countries and divided according to the principle of both ensuring the existence of expressways in the context of limited resources and creating the premise for upgrading in the next phase.
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang answered questions at the National Assembly on the afternoon of November 6.
Accordingly, priority will be given to completing investment in sections with high demand such as Hanoi - Hai Phong, Ben Luc - Long Thanh, Phan Thiet - Dau Giay, and the remaining investment will be divided into phases for sections with low demand. Notably, all expressways recently approved by the National Assembly (NA) will have their land cleared at one time. In the immediate future, the Ministry of Transport will consult on a report to consider increasing budget revenue to expand the Cao Bo - Mai Son and La Son - Hoa Lien expressways, as well as completing two-lane sections, ensuring that the whole country has a modern expressway system.
Not agreeing with Minister Thang's answer, Deputy Tran Van Tien, member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, questioned: "The Deputy asked whether the expressway without an emergency lane is suitable for the standards or not, but the Minister did not answer directly to the issue, just answering whether it is suitable or not?". Answering this question, according to the Minister of Transport: "The story of a 2-lane or 4-lane expressway, with our current standards, is suitable. The standards are under construction, will be reported to the Prime Minister and are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024".
Delegate Tran Van Tien (Vinh Phuc delegation) questioned on the afternoon of November 6.
Sharing that the new head of the Ministry of Transport has just taken up the task at the ministry and "does not bear the main responsibility", Deputy Hoang Duc Thang (Quang Tri delegation) also pointed out the fact that the Cam Lo - Tuy Loan route only has 2 lanes and has not been completely cleared. If phase 2 is expanded, it will require very costly clearance, wasting national resources. Not to mention, the auxiliary system, the bridge connecting people... are all built on a 2-lane scale, if expanded later, they will have to be demolished, "it is not known how much this number is, but it is certainly not small".
According to Minister Nguyen Van Thang, the Cam Lo - Tuy Loan expressway consists of two component projects: Cam Lo - La Son is a public investment project with 4-lane and 2-lane sections, and all land has been cleared. The 2-lane La Son - Tuy Loan section has also been cleared for expansion. "In the coming time, the Ministry of Transport will balance the budget and transportation needs, traffic volume to advise the Government to report to the National Assembly to expand these routes, especially the Cam Lo - La Son route with high traffic volume," Mr. Thang said.
To conclude the issue, according to National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, "we do not have much capital so we have to divide the investment into phases, but how to divide to ensure traffic safety, the Ministry of Transport must think carefully". The National Assembly Chairman also cited the example of new expressway projects that have just come into operation such as Cao Bo - Mai Son and Thanh Hoa - Dien Chau, the number of traffic participants is very small, the reason is that the operating speed is only 80 km/h, there is no emergency lane, so just 1 car accident or flat tire will cause traffic jam. "It is very necessary to consider this issue", the National Assembly Chairman noted.
Still struggling to handle 8 suspended BOT projects
Delegate Nguyen Huu Thong (Binh Thuan delegation) said that currently the highway runs through Binh Thuan province for nearly 200 km but there are still no rest stops, making people "not know how to solve the problem of environmental sanitation".
Responding to the delegate, Mr. Thang accepted the responsibility of the Minister of Transport when the implementation of rest stops on the expressways is slow. Mr. Thang also explained that the implementation of expressway projects in this term is in the spirit of "running and queuing at the same time". Regulations on rest stops are lacking legal corridors, causing phase 1 of the expressway to have almost no rest stops. The Ministry of Transport has directed strongly and urgently issued a circular guiding the selection of investors for socialization. 9 rest stops in phase 1 will be completed in 2023 - 2024, 15 stations in phase 2 will certainly ensure progress.
The highway passes through Binh Thuan province for nearly 200 km but still has no rest stops.
Regarding the handling of shortcomings in suspended BOT projects, Deputy Trinh Xuan An (Dong Nai delegation) said that in Resolution No. 62, the National Assembly assigned the task of thoroughly resolving difficulties and shortcomings in BOT project toll stations in 2022. However, over the past year, although the Ministry of Transport has been making efforts to implement the task, it has not yet completed the task assigned by the National Assembly. Mr. An also requested the Minister of Transport to clearly state the solutions and completion time, and clarify the plan to mobilize more than 10,000 billion VND from the budget.
Minister Nguyen Van Thang said that the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with ministries, branches and localities to resolve 8 problematic BOT projects with a total estimated cost of more than 10,000 billion VND. Mr. Thang admitted that the contents of resolving BOT projects have been implemented by the Ministry of Transport for a long time but there are still many problems. In particular, the capital source for handling is from increased revenue or medium-term public investment. The projects are not only related to investors but also to banks. When working, the Ministry of Transport requested that investors sacrifice profits, banks sacrifice interest rates to preserve and recover capital... The Ministry of Transport will report to the Government before November 15, to gradually submit to the National Assembly in the coming time.
State Bank Governor Nguyen Thi Hong answers questions
Regarding the issue of attracting PPP projects, Mr. Thang also admitted that since the PPP Law was promulgated, the attraction of projects has not been many and has not been effective. The reason is that the traffic projects are unevenly distributed, so there are disadvantages for investors. The maximum state capital support is 50% for land acquisition and clearance, so the actual capital to support businesses is not much... The Ministry of Transport will advise the Government to submit adjustments to policy mechanisms to attract investors, such as increasing the proportion of state capital support.
Will there be cases like SCB bank?
Questioning the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Thi Hong, many deputies requested to know the roadmap for eliminating the management of credit limits (credit room). In response to the deputies, Ms. Hong said that in accordance with the resolution of the National Assembly, the SBV had conducted discussions and reached a consensus that at this time it is not possible to eliminate the management of the credit room. She said that the SBV will continue to operate the credit room until a favorable time. "When other segments of the financial market such as corporate bonds can meet the medium- and long-term capital needs of enterprises, the possibility of eliminating this credit limit will be more feasible," Ms. Hong emphasized.
Many deputies requested an explanation of the slow handling of weak banks and asked Ms. Hong to let them know whether there is a possibility of similar incidents like the recent SCB (Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank) to help customers feel secure with their deposits. In response, Ms. Hong said that restructuring weak banks is really difficult, as this is an unprecedented task, the participating officials have no experience; finding investors to participate in the project is also difficult. In addition, regarding the resources for implementation, Ms. Hong said it is also necessary to seek opinions from relevant agencies, to have consensus and agreement. "The restructuring of weak banks has been consulted with competent authorities and is in the process of being implemented according to this plan before completing the detailed project to submit to competent authorities for approval," Ms. Hong emphasized.
500 public properties are abandoned
Delegate Doan Thi Thanh Mai (Hung Yen delegation) mentioned the situation of many public headquarters being left empty after the merger, while many agencies in other places have to share the headquarters, which are cramped and degraded... Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc said that up to now, about 90% of public assets have been arranged and handled, while 10% - equivalent to about 1,000 public assets - have not been handled, of which about 500 public assets are left empty, creating waste.
Regarding the reason, many agencies and units do not have the need to use the above-mentioned public assets. In addition, when wanting to appraise public assets for sale, finding a valuation agency is very difficult, and the sluggish market also makes selling public assets not easy. Not to mention, if public assets want to be appraised, they must have their land use planning re-approved, change the land use purpose, and go through a series of procedures, so it will be difficult.
The Minister of Finance affirmed that the management of public assets is the responsibility of agencies at all levels. In particular, the public assets of central agencies, ministries and branches are the responsibility of the Government, the direct advisory agency is the Ministry of Finance, the direct management agencies are the ministries and branches. The rest, the majority of public assets when arranging districts and communes are under the management of the Provincial People's Committee. The Ministry of Finance has issued documents guiding and urging relevant agencies to handle public assets. In the near future, the Ministry will work to provide further guidance, ensuring that public assets are put into use and promoted effectively.
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