North-South high-speed railway and opportunities for domestic contractors to "show off"

VOV.VN - The North-South high-speed railway project is expected to bring a huge amount of work to the infrastructure construction market. Major domestic contractors are "eagerly" preparing resources including human resources and equipment to carry out the construction and installation items when "called by name".

After the North-South Expressway, domestic contractors can undertake most of the construction and installation work. The North-South High-Speed ​​Railway Project is the largest project ever, with an estimated total cost of approximately 70 billion USD. The project has a total length of 1,541 km, with 60% being bridge structures, 30% being ground structures, and 10% being tunnel structures, and will be an opportunity to bring a huge amount of work to Vietnamese transport infrastructure construction and installation contractors. Whether Vietnamese transport enterprises have the capacity to seize this opportunity or not is a matter of great concern.

The North-South high-speed railway is expected to be completed in 2035. Photo AI.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Huynh, General Director of Cienco4 Group, is confident that with his capacity and experience in participating in many large transportation projects, his unit can participate in most of the North-South high-speed railway projects.

"This is a very large project, requiring contractors, consultants, and equipment suppliers with real capacity. Cienco4 is confident enough to participate in the project. With its capacity and experience, Cienco4 wishes to participate in most items from construction infrastructure to equipment," Mr. Huynh affirmed.

According to Mr. Huynh, Cienco4's advantage is that it has participated in the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien and Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro projects, so it already has a management system, thousands of engineers and workers. A certain number of human resources are being sent for training. Cienco4 also has a number of foreign partners such as China, Japan, and South Korea ready to provide professional support when necessary. From practical experience and learning from models in some European countries, China, and Japan, the leaders of Cienco4 Group affirmed that most of the construction infrastructure (except equipment) and stations other than central stations, large domestic transport contractors are capable of implementing.

After the North-South Expressway, domestic contractors can undertake most of the construction and installation work and master tunnel drilling technology.

"Authorities need to select large, experienced contractors to represent large bidding packages. The bidding mechanism like in the North-South Expressway project is an open point that needs to be researched and implemented. Except for some main stations that need to integrate many technical infrastructures, consider selecting foreign enterprises with experience in technology, equipment, and operations as general contractors to ensure high accuracy," he said. According to the leader of Cienco4, in the process of building criteria for selecting contractors and consulting units, if the requirement is "the enterprise has participated in a similar project", it will be an obstacle for domestic enterprises, because in Vietnam there is no high-speed railway line. According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, General Director of Deo Ca Group, identifying investment in railway infrastructure as a new direction in the next 5-10 years, Deo Ca Group has also cooperated with universities to recruit and train high-quality human resources. The cooperation model includes ordering at the source and on-site training. "We organize practical research on the railway - metro training process of advanced countries through prestigious training institutions to select and "import" programs and experts," Mr. Vinh shared. From the experience of implementing the North - South expressway project phase 2, the leader of Deo Ca Group believes that for the high-speed railway project to be fast and effective, the division of bidding packages must be "exactly" to create conditions for contractors to maximize their capacity. The bidding mechanism needs to be further considered and applied to be able to choose the right and successful enterprises with potential.

The high-speed railway project will be an opportunity to bring a huge amount of work to Vietnamese transport infrastructure construction contractors.

With the high-speed railway project, there needs to be a mechanism to facilitate these enterprises to participate. In particular, the items can be studied and divided into 2 components. Component 1 is the items from the under-rail section down with the same nature as road works (bridges, roads, tunnels), which need to be assigned to experienced domestic enterprises to implement. Component 2 is locomotives, signal information systems... consider assigning domestic enterprises to form joint ventures with foreign enterprises to implement. "To "anticipate" railway projects, Deo Ca Group has cooperated with universities to recruit and train high-quality human resources in the railway industry, the cooperation model includes ordering at the source and on-site training; studying the practical training process of the railway-metro industry in advanced countries such as France, the US, China, Japan... to select "imported" programs and training experts", Mr. Vinh said.

Building a specific mechanism for domestic enterprises to "practice"

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy, the North-South high-speed railway project is of particularly large scale, with new technology and is being implemented for the first time. During the process of developing the project to submit to the Politburo, then to the Central Government, as well as the Government's feasibility report to the National Assembly this time, the Ministry of Transport has proposed policies and mechanisms to help domestic enterprises participate. The Ministry of Transport has invited experts in fields such as engineering, economics, and construction, proactively building a system of policies and mechanisms. Of which, 19 policies and mechanisms are under the authority of the National Assembly and 5 policies and mechanisms under the authority of the Government, focusing on 5 groups of issues. In the 5 groups of issues, there is the need to find policies and mechanisms to train human resources to serve the development of the railway industry. There must be human resources to master the operation, exploitation, repair, and maintenance of equipment and infrastructure systems. We cannot depend on them throughout the entire life cycle of the project. The leader of the Ministry of Transport affirmed that we are confident that Vietnamese enterprises can participate and become masters, just needing policy mechanisms. “For example, we have binding conditions, the general contractor must use domestically produced goods and services. We make that a prerequisite for contractors when participating. Or we have proposed policies to the National Assembly, assigning tasks to 100% state-owned enterprises, or ordering domestic enterprises, items, and goods that can be produced domestically,” said Mr. Huy.

Passengers take a high-speed train in Laos.

Regarding mechanisms and policies, the Deputy Minister of Transport said that he has proposed solutions to encourage domestic enterprises. For example, binding conditions, the general contractor must use domestically produced goods and services. This is a prerequisite for contractors when participating. Or the policy submitted to the National Assembly, assigning tasks to 100% state-owned enterprises or ordering domestic enterprises to carry out items, goods that can be produced domestically. "We have surveyed and worked with businesses, for example metallurgical and steel manufacturing businesses, or Vietnam Railways Corporation, on the premises for manufacturing locomotives and wagons, not only for high-speed railways, but also for larger markets such as the national railway system, urban railways, etc. Investment in mastering that technology must be effective, carefully choosing the industrial development policy mechanism. In the policy mechanism we have submitted to the Politburo, submitted to the Central Government, and in the feasibility report submitted to the National Assembly, we also put forward premises to encourage domestic businesses to participate...", Mr. Huy said. At the recent dialogue conference of contractors with the Prime Minister, many businesses in the Vietnamese construction industry proposed that there should be a priority mechanism for Vietnamese businesses to participate in the North-South high-speed railway project. Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh outlined six tasks to remove obstacles, promote strategic infrastructure development, and jointly build large-scale projects and century-old projects that mark the country's development. The Prime Minister hopes, believes and calls on construction enterprises, including those participating in key and important national projects and works, to continue promoting the spirit of "growing from one's own hands, minds, sky, and sea", "resources originating from thinking and vision, motivation originating from innovation and creativity, strength originating from people and enterprises", "turning nothing into something, turning difficult into easy, turning impossible into possible".

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Chung (Chairman of the Vietnam Road Transport Construction Investors Association): Our Party and State have clearly stated the policy of building high-speed railways using advanced technology but must ensure the simultaneous participation of domestic enterprises, moving towards mastering the technology. Participating in the project will be an opportunity for them to understand, move towards receiving, mastering and developing technology in the future. Standing member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Phan Duc Hieu: Our wish is that enterprises not only participate in railway construction, but also gradually master and become the main entity operating and managing the railway. The most important thing is to have a strategy to implement this, improving the capacity of domestic enterprises. Policy mechanisms are very necessary. This project cannot be successful, implemented on schedule and smoothly without specific policy mechanisms.

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Source: https://vov.vn/xa-hoi/duong-sat-toc-do-cao-bac-nam-va-co-hoi-cho-cac-nha-thau-trong-nuoc-the-hien-post1132772.vov