Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van delivered the opening speech at the Forum - Photo: Construction Newspaper
Speaking at the Forum, Mr. Nguyen Tuong Van, Deputy Minister of Construction emphasized: The Forum "Infrastructure investment prospects - economic development in the Mekong Delta" is expected to be an opportunity to gather in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis, reports, and comments, and objective assessments of the overall picture of the development of technical infrastructure and economy in the Mekong Delta; raise the current situation, challenges and opportunities of this region to contribute to finding solutions, creating momentum for sustainable economic development in the region and connecting the region with all the southern provinces.
The main content of the Forum includes 04 main topics: (1) Current status of technical infrastructure and economic development in the Mekong Delta; (2) Potential, opportunities; (3) Development challenges; (4) New driving force for economic development in the Mekong Delta.
At the Forum, experts raised issues, presented the current situation, difficulties, and proposed solutions to build infrastructure in the Mekong Delta for economic development.
New thinking capacity, new development approach needed
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Research, said that the Mekong Delta region is facing disadvantages such as: Alluvial water resources are decreasing, polluted, and irregular; infrastructure connections are not synchronized, underdeveloped, and difficult to connect (intra-regional and inter-regional); conditions for industrial and urban development are not favorable, the ground is weak, there are few minerals, and it is difficult to build hydropower... To develop sustainably, the region needs new thinking capacities and new development approaches.
Infrastructure construction needs to take into account conservation for the Mekong Delta to develop sustainably and appropriately. A vision based on two main strategic solutions is needed: Managing challenges and creating value. Developing the Mekong Delta into a sustainable agricultural economic center; forming economic corridors and dynamic urban chains; creating a sustainable living environment, good quality of life for people associated with conserving resources and ecosystems...
Believing that the development of urban infrastructure systems in the Mekong Delta will face a number of challenges in the coming time, Mr. Ta Quang Vinh - Director of the Department of Technical Infrastructure (Ministry of Construction) Proposal : To develop urban technical infrastructure in the Mekong Delta more effectively, first of all, the authorities need to improve laws, mechanisms and policies towards improving the effectiveness and efficiency of State management, creating favorable conditions for economic sectors, including foreign investors, to invest in construction and business of infrastructure in many forms, in accordance with the international system.
Ministries, sectors and localities need to organize regional planning, provincial planning, urban planning in the Mekong Delta, meeting the requirements of sustainable development and adapting to climate change. In particular, attention should be paid to improving the quality of technical infrastructure planning content, especially planning for the development of transport infrastructure systems, ensuring the overall synchronization of regional, inter-regional and urban infrastructure systems...
It is necessary to promote strategic breakthroughs in building a synchronous technical infrastructure system, focusing on transport infrastructure, water supply, drainage and wastewater treatment. At the same time, solutions for water storage, water source protection, and ensuring clean water safety in the region must be implemented.
Overview of the Forum "Infrastructure Investment Prospects - Economic Development of the Mekong Delta" - Photo: Construction Newspaper
Referring to urban flooding as one of the challenges facing cities, Dr. Patric Rolf Schlager - Head of the Urban and Infrastructure Group (Climate Change Adaptation Project in the Mekong Delta - German Development Cooperation Organization - GIZ) assessed that in the Mekong Delta, the economic loss due to flooding is 60 million USD. The reasons pointed out by this expert are: Rapid urban development speed, lack of control, limiting water infiltration. The drainage system capacity is not large enough, the drainage infrastructure is not complete, not meeting the demand. Urban land subsidence is very high due to groundwater exploitation, an average of about 1 cm/year. Lack of coordination in river basin management, excessive sand exploitation causes increased land subsidence, leading to increased flooding and landslides in urban areas...
Dr. Schlager proposed applying the sponge city model with a sustainable rainwater drainage system, simulating the most natural water circulation. Recently, GIZ has cooperated with the Ministry of Construction to support the construction of urban drainage systems for Long Xuyen, Rach Gia, Ca Mau cities and is expanding to other provinces in the region.
Dr. Schlager noted that localities need to plan their provinces according to regional planning, and integrate natural disaster prevention into socio-economic development plans. GIZ will support provinces in developing urban flood prevention projects; regulations on local drainage management; roadmap for drainage and wastewater treatment service prices; piloting sustainable urban stormwater drainage systems...
Mobilizing non-budgetary capital for infrastructure investment
Attending the Forum, Dr. Can Van Luc - Chief Economist of BIDV, member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council; Member of the National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation, mentioned the issue of capital mobilization for development.
According to Dr. Can Van Luc, the Mekong Delta, in the period of 2021 - 2025, is prioritized for investment from the State's public investment capital of 90 trillion VND, with 11 component projects. However, this capital source only meets 49% of the total investment capital.
With the view that mobilizing non-budgetary capital for infrastructure investment in general and transport infrastructure in particular is extremely important and needs to be addressed, Dr. Can Van Luc proposed a number of solutions.
Firstly, it is necessary to speed up the completion of planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045.
Second, speed up disbursement of public investment capital in general and ODA capital in particular.
Third, it is necessary to restructure and promote the role of the Vietnam Development Bank. This must be the key bank in investment and development of key infrastructure. At the same time, it is necessary to form a fund (or green bank, or wholesale bank) as a focal point to lead the country to access green financial resources.
Fourth, remove obstacles in the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership (PPP) method, have a clearer risk-sharing mechanism for lending institutions; develop the market for corporate bonds, construction bonds, and local government bonds.
Fifth, improve the quality, capacity of appraisal, construction and management of projects, avoid excessive capital increases, excessive delays or excessively high expected revenue.
Sixth, promote regional connectivity, especially connectivity in transport infrastructure, tourism, healthcare, education, etc.
Seventh, in the process of studying and amending the Land Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law, it is necessary to unify policies on allowing investors and foreign lending organizations to receive mortgaged assets, to purchase houses and assets on land. To ensure national safety and security, it is possible to receive mortgages on land use rights, houses and other real estate through third-party entrustment in Vietnam...
Solving the material problem
The forum was attended by leaders of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta; representatives of associations; construction and real estate businesses in the region; banks; domestic and international experts...- Photo: Construction Newspaper
Mr. Ngo Hoang Nguyen - Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Management (Ministry of Construction) said: In order to remove the bottleneck of traffic infrastructure for the Mekong Delta, many large-scale traffic projects have been and are being launched in this area. Therefore, the demand for sand filling materials is very large (about 54 million m3), mainly concentrated in 2023 and 2024. However, the current reserve of sand filling is only about 37 million m3, meeting about 70% of the demand.
To ensure adequate supply of roadbed filling materials for projects in the Mekong Delta region, Mr. Ngo Hoang Nguyen proposed the following solutions: It is necessary to simplify licensing procedures for filling material mines, increase the capacity of sand mines in operation; reissue mining licenses for expired mines; put into operation new mines specifically serving expressway projects on the basis of close monitoring and supervision of the environment and landslide risks in accordance with the provisions of law.
Find solutions to design road traffic projects, ensuring compliance with technical standards and regulations, consider suitable route elevation design options (or replace with viaducts) to reduce the volume of fill materials and impact on flood drainage or create waterlogged areas when it rains or there are high tides.
Mr. Nguyen suggested that specialized construction agencies advise the province to consider and study the use of alternative materials such as crushed stone sand, ash and slag... to supply highway projects and civil works. In fact, at the DT.978 restoration section of the Hau Giang - Ca Mau component project, experiments have been conducted on the use of sea sand in the field. In addition, localities can study and pilot the mixing of sea sand, saline sand with available local construction materials such as lime, cement, rice husk ash, ash and slag from Duyen Hai thermal power plant... for trial use in rural traffic leveling... to proactively find sources of raw materials, reducing dependence on river sand in the long term. Research and evaluate the conformity of technical standards to have a plan to use soil mines as road leveling materials.
It is necessary to request localities to evaluate the priority order of project implementation in the whole region to provide resources, materials, etc. to speed up the investment progress of key transport projects in the Mekong Delta./.
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