Projects worth tens of thousands of billions of VND are expected to create momentum for the Ho Chi Minh City region.
Báo Dân trí•11/05/2024
(Dan Tri) - The expressways Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai, Ho Chi Minh City - Chon Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4... are expected to be deployed and completed soon to remove infrastructure obstacles and boost economic growth.
"To be on time for the meeting in Ho Chi Minh City at 8am, the Tay Ninh delegation had to leave at 4am to have breakfast," Vice Chairman of Tay Ninh Provincial People's Committee Duong Van Thang shared at a scientific workshop to give comments on the draft planning of Ho Chi Minh City for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, earlier this year. Only 100km to more than 120km long, the road connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau has been a bottleneck for many years, hindering people's travel and trade needs. The fear of congestion, loss of time, and waste of money that hinders the development of key economic regions has been repeatedly questioned by government leaders. And this is urging ministries, branches, and localities to promptly deploy and take shape a network of projects connecting the Southeast region.
Very urgent
The Southeast region plays an important role in economic development, contributing 32% of GDP and 45% of the national budget. The region's commercial activities are vibrant, contributing 45% of the total volume of goods and more than 60% of the volume of container goods through the Vietnamese seaport system. However, the transport infrastructure, especially intra-regional and inter-regional transport, has not developed synchronously, and port connection infrastructure is slow to deploy. In particular, National Highway 51 has shown limitations in capacity, not meeting the requirements of receiving and transporting goods to the port, and congestion often occurs. According to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, the Southeast key economic region has 29 important projects that play a role in removing the above bottlenecks. Up to now, 4 projects have been deployed, 5 projects are implementing investment procedures and 20 projects are being researched and implemented. Specifically, localities have started 4 projects: Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 (investment value of 75,000 billion VND), Tan Son Nhat Airport Terminal 3 (11,000 billion VND), Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway (17,800 billion VND), Long Thanh International Airport Phase 1 (36,000 billion VND). 5 projects are implementing investment procedures, including: Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway (20,000 billion VND), Ho Chi Minh City - Chon Thanh Expressway (25,000 billion VND), Chon Thanh - Gia Nghia Expressway (25,500 billion VND), Dau Giay - Lien Khuong Expressway (65,000 billion VND), Chon Thanh - Duc Hoa Expressway (2,292 billion VND). The Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai expressway project will connect with the Phnom Penh - Bavet expressway, Cambodia (Photo: Ngoc Tan). Among them, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Trinh said that the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai expressway has a very special meaning. The project not only promotes economic development in the Southeast region, but also connects import and export, trade between Vietnam and Cambodia, connecting the Phnom Penh expressway. Looking more broadly, the expressway plays a role in connecting the Indochina region, including Thailand. Right now, experts say that it is necessary to start the project soon because the gateway to National Highway 22 is currently overloaded. Traffic conflicts between freight traffic and people traveling happen too often. This increases the cost of time, fuel, maintenance costs and even logistics human resources. Recently, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai expressway project has completed all procedures. The Prime Minister also assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to review the documents, affirming that the documents are eligible for consideration and approval. The project is expected to start construction in May 2025 and be completed and opened to traffic in December 2027. The Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway project is under construction, currently reaching about 80.05% of the total volume. The project to build the T3 passenger terminal at Tan Son Nhat airport has completed more than 50% of the rough volume and continues to complete the remaining items according to plan. The Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project alone (76km long, first planned in 2008) has reached about 10% of the total volume; of which, the section through Long An province has reached more than 22%, the section through Ho Chi Minh City has reached 12.5%, the section through Binh Duong has reached more than 9% and the section through Dong Nai province has reached more than 2%.
Completing the regional picture
The Southeast regional planning aims to basically complete the regional and inter-regional infrastructure system with about 850km of expressways in the region by 2030. In particular, the region prioritizes the development of the North-South economic corridor, the Moc Bai - Ho Chi Minh City - Bien Hoa - Vung Tau economic corridor and the industrial - urban - service belts associated with Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 and Ring Road 4 (investment value of VND 105,000 billion). The planning also aims to promote the completion of the North-South Eastern Expressway, the North-South Western Expressway, Dau Giay - Lien Khuong, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai, Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh, Go Dau - Xa Mat, and at the same time expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway (investment value of VND 15,000 billion), Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong.
The extended line of vehicles on the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay expressway towards Dong Nai and Vung Tau (Photo: Hai Long). Regional railways, urban railways, gateway seaports with international transit functions, airports, and inland waterways are also focused on. With a vision to 2050, the planning sets out the goal that the Southeast region will receive investment in the Chon Thanh - Hoa Lu, Ho Chi Minh City - Tien Giang - Ben Tre - Tra Vinh - Soc Trang expressways; construction of the North - South high-speed railway section Nha Trang - Ho Chi Minh City; railways connecting Bien Hoa - Vung Tau seaport, the inter-regional connecting route Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho, the Thu Thiem - Long Thanh light rail connecting to Long Thanh international airport, and the Ho Chi Minh City - Loc Ninh route connecting to Cambodia. Perspective of Gia Nghia - Chon Thanh expressway project (Photo: VGP). Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Mai said that the urgent implementation and operation of these projects will help brighten the infrastructure picture of the Southeast region. "A synchronized transport system and the economic system of the Southeast region will certainly be stimulated to grow faster," the expert assessed. Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said that according to the plan, the total investment capital demand for transport infrastructure in the Southeast region is expected to be about 738,500 billion VND, of which the 2021-2025 period needs about 342,000 billion VND, the 2026-2030 period needs about 396,500 billion VND to focus on investing in key projects, regional connectivity and creating spillover momentum. With this resource and determination, the infrastructure of the Southeast region is expected to be gradually completed in the coming time, contributing to promoting the socio-economic development of the region to make a strong breakthrough, becoming the economic - financial - commercial center of the country and Southeast Asia. However, to reach this goal, there still needs to be close coordination between all levels of government, support from businesses and people from today.
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