The "epic" of amending the standard unit price will be included in the contractor's proposal to the Ministry of Construction in the upcoming meeting.
Contractors expect to end the "epic" of inappropriate unit prices
The "epic" of amending the standard unit price will be included in the contractor's proposal to the Ministry of Construction in the upcoming meeting.
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| Construction Contractors Cafe program organized by Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC) on March 15. |
Time to end the epic of inappropriate unit prices
The meeting between construction contractors at the Construction Contractors Cafe Program organized by the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC) on the morning of March 15 agreed on this item in the list of issues that will be recommended to the state management agency on construction.
Even Mr. Nguyen Huu Toi, Chairman of Vinaconex Board of Directors, believes that this is a golden opportunity to completely resolve the long-standing suffering of contractors.
“Previously, when contractors implementing traffic projects made recommendations to the Ministry of Transport, they requested the Ministry of Construction to amend the unit price, but it was not successful. Currently, the two agencies have become one and the Ministry of Construction will receive and resolve. The opportunity has come, businesses must make recommendations together,” Mr. Toi said at the Saturday morning meeting. Many famous contractors were present, such as Phuc Hung, Truong Son, NewTecons, Giao thong Phuong Thanh...
Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of VACC, shared that the proposal to amend the standard unit price is a "long poem" of contractors, but it is time to have an end.
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| Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors. |
The reason is partly because the unit prices that localities are announcing are inconsistent, outdated, and even outdated compared to reality, directly affecting the operations of construction contractors.
However, Mr. Hiep said that in the longer term, when key national projects, such as high-speed railway projects, are implemented, the current standard unit price system cannot be applied. Many contractors are proposing to apply a general unit price, instead of a detailed one, to create room for contractors to promote initiatives in construction implementation.
“As an investor myself, I still prefer detailed unit prices for easier control and supervision. This may be the mentality of state management agencies when inviting bids. But it is true that we must switch to applying aggregate unit prices. However, this may be a transitional period, and businesses need to prove that aggregate unit prices are reasonable for state management agencies to approve their application. For important national projects and projects that have never been done before, contractors propose a mechanism to apply aggregate unit prices," Mr. Hiep expressed his opinion.
In the immediate future, businesses said they will collect important norms without unit prices to propose adjustments, supplements, and resolve construction volume for contractors. In 2022, VACC made many recommendations about the lack of detailed unit prices, but it was not until September 2024 that 210 norms were issued, despite close monitoring by contractors.
"Currently, this issue needs to be prioritized," said Mr. Hiep, adding that the meeting with the Ministry of Construction is scheduled for the end of March 2025.
The problem of labor shortage in construction sites
“We have also sat down with ministries and sectors to discuss human resources for the construction industry. With the growth rate of the construction industry, in the next 10-20 years, the construction industry will have a serious shortage of labor, and that is only in terms of quantity, not to mention quality,” said Vinaconex Chairman Nguyen Huu Toi .
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| Chairman of Vinaconex Board of Directors Nguyen Huu Toi spoke. |
Previously, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep raised the question of whether large enterprises, such as Vinaconex, should participate in training workers and technical laborers according to orders from small and medium-sized construction enterprises.
“I talked to some construction contractors, for example Phuc Hung is in dire need of labor. Most of the workers have to use idle agricultural labor, but currently they are only looking for people from mountainous areas. Workers in many lowland areas do not want to work far away. Partly because after Covid 19, they do not want to be far away from home, partly because they can find jobs in industrial parks that are developing rapidly in many localities. Businesses do not know where to find trained welders and ironworkers...”, Mr. Hiep explained.
Many years ago, the technical workforce was trained by the Ministry of Construction’s training schools, but that is no longer the case. Some large enterprises, such as Vinaconex, still maintain some training facilities.
Agreeing with concerns about human resources in the construction industry, Mr. Toi frankly said that training according to orders has been done by businesses before, but the efficiency is not high. "In fact, we have trained, but the workers quit after 1 month, there is no mechanism or sanction to retain them," Mr. Toi admitted.
Even for engineers, Mr. Toi also shared that this field of study is less attractive than other economic sectors. This is an issue that contractors plan to propose to the Ministry of Construction in the upcoming meeting.
“We can start by adjusting labor prices. Currently, the prices are too low, making it difficult for contractors to attract workers,” Mr. Hiep expressed his opinion.
Currently, the unit labor prices announced by many localities are significantly lower than the labor costs that contractors are actually paying.
For example, the labor unit price announced by the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province on December 25, 2024, for the group of operators (truck drivers, rollers, bulldozers, excavators, cranes), ranges from 280,000 - 330,000 VND/working day (7 - 8 million VND/month), while the contractor implementing Package 11XL, Bai Voo - Ham Nghi section in Ha Tinh is paying 12-16 million VND/month and food allowance ranges from 730,000 - 1.5 million VND/month.
Even for unskilled labor, the local announced unit price ranges from 180,000 - 280,000 VND/working day (about 5 - 7 million VND/month), but in reality, contractors hire by the day rate at 350,000 - 400,000 VND/working day, not including the costs that the business must pay such as social insurance, accommodation at the construction site, allowances, etc.
Not to mention, many businesses said that many localities are slow to announce annual labor unit prices, leading to contractors not being able to promptly adjust labor costs according to the contract and the reality is not consistent with actual costs (while living expenses increase; travel expenses increase...).
Enterprises said that in the past 2-3 years, they have been suffering from a brain drain due to construction workers moving to other industries, causing difficulties in recruiting and supplementing human resources with expertise and experience...
Source: https://baodautu.vn/nha-thau-ky-vong-ket-thuc-ban-truong-ca-don-gia-dinh-muc-bat-cap-d254445.html
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