Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the 12th meeting of the Steering Committee (Photo: Tran Hai).

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the 13th National Party Congress has set specific and important targets: by 2025, 3,000 km of highways must be completed; by 2030, 5,000 km of highways must be completed. This target is of great importance and significance because transportation in general, highways, airports, and ports will create new development space, create new urban areas, new services, increase land value, reduce logistics costs, and create good competition for domestic, regional, and international goods.

The Government of this term must establish a Steering Committee to direct key projects in the transport sector to realize the guidelines and goals of the 13th National Party Congress. In fact, the Steering Committee has been operating in a meaningful, serious and effective manner; spending time every month to discuss and resolve, ensure the progress and quality of projects, and to bring to the nation backlogs and problems in the implementation process. In fact, after each meeting, we have gradually resolved the tasks effectively, and have gained more and more experience.

The Prime Minister requested that the Chairmen of the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities actively attend all meetings because this is an important task. The Prime Minister commended a number of provinces and cities for their active participation: the Secretaries and Chairmen of the People's Committees directly took part in resolving the work. Where the entire political system took part, the results were very clear, difficulties and obstacles were resolved; where there was negligence, there were still obstacles.

The Prime Minister pointed out that, up to this point, key projects and works have achieved very encouraging results, for example, Long Thanh International Airport has taken shape very clearly; recently, we have mobilized 2 billion USD in domestic capital for this project; issues regarding capital, land, and materials have been resolved, the problem now is to focus on "3 shifts, 4 crews" construction. Projects such as Terminal T3 of Tan Son Nhat International Airport, expansion of Terminal T2 of Noi Bai... are being actively implemented. Some localities that have been reminded about site clearance work have had positive changes.

The Prime Minister commended and highly appreciated the localities that have carried out site clearance work for the North-South Eastern Expressway projects in the 2021-2025 period. In addition, some localities still have problems with site clearance; and the issue of supplying construction materials, such as the Can Tho-Bac Lieu Expressway, there is still information about a lack of construction materials, while the source is not lacking; the East-West Expressway (Soc Trang-Can Tho-Hau Giang-An Giang); some places have used sea sand as filling material, so it must be objectively and honestly assessed whether it is contaminated with salt or not? The media must inform the truth, not "beautify" or "blacken".

We need to review where the localities are still facing difficulties and obstacles. After each meeting, we must resolve issues to promote better projects with the spirit of "only discussing and doing, not retreating", "not saying no, not saying difficult, not saying yes but not doing", all for the development, strength and prosperity of the country, putting national interests first; strictly handle cases of bidding, collusion and bidding; must continue to inspect and handle negative aspects in the purchase and sale of raw materials, especially sand and gravel in the Mekong Delta; besides promoting progress, we must resolutely handle negative aspects.

Contractors and localities that lack materials must proactively and actively coordinate closely to resolve the problem, not wait or rely on others. We must ensure quality, environmental sanitation, focus on the landscape and space of completed projects; strengthen inspection, supervision, and ensure the quality of construction works, and absolutely not allow corruption or negativity to occur.

The Prime Minister requested the mobilization of the entire political system, for example, the construction of the 500kV Line 3, Quang Trach - Pho Noi, was carried out very well, this proves the strength of the nation, the entire political system, the strength of large corporations and groups of the State.

The Prime Minister emphasized that in the spirit of celebrating the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Ho Chi Minh Trail - the traditional day of the Truong Son Army (May 19, 1959 - May 19, 2024), creating the legend of "Barefoot, steel will", "Splitting Truong Son to save the country", in the current much more favorable circumstances, we must also carry out our tasks very well. Therefore, the Prime Minister requested the delegates to frankly point out the difficulties and obstacles, propose solutions, and clearly state the responsibilities of each party. What must the Central Government do? What must the localities do? The Prime Minister stated that from now until the end of 2025, 1,000km of expressway must be completed to achieve the target of 3,000km as set out by the 13th National Party Congress.

We have accelerated the development of the expressway system in the past 5 years by the same rate as in the past 20 years, so in the next 5 years we must accelerate this speed even higher. There is a lot of work, requiring high determination, great effort, and drastic action. The Prime Minister said that he will launch a movement to compete to complete the target of 3,000km of expressway before December 31, 2025...

According to the report of the Ministry of Transport, the State Steering Committee for important national projects and works, key to the transport sector, held 11 meetings; the Prime Minister - Head of the Steering Committee issued 5 Decisions to complete the members and add projects to the list of projects under the Steering Committee, bringing the total number to 40 projects/92 component projects (DATP) in 3 areas: road, railway and aviation, the projects passing through the territory of 48 provinces and cities.

The Prime Minister has given many instructions at meetings, working trips, and on-site inspections to remove difficulties and obstacles, and assigned tasks to ministries and local branches to implement projects. Since the beginning of the term, 674km/02 projects/12 DATPs in the list of projects of the Steering Committee have been completed, bringing the total number of expressways to about 2,000km, contributing to promoting socio-economic development, creating new development space for localities where the projects pass through, creating trust, consensus, and support from the people in implementing investment projects to build transport infrastructure, creating a premise to complete the goal of putting 3,000km of expressways into operation by 2025.

Regarding the implementation of the projects, the Ministry of Transport also said: Regarding the preparation and approval of the pre-feasibility study report, Ho Chi Minh City has reviewed, received, explained and completed the dossier to submit to the Prime Minister for approval of the investment policy for the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai expressway project. The Ministry of Transport and the People's Committee of Binh Phuoc province have submitted to the National Assembly the investment policy for the Gia Nghia-Chon Thanh project and have explained the discussion opinions at the National Assembly delegation group for the National Assembly to approve in June 2024.

Regarding the preparation and approval of feasibility study reports: Son La, Thai Binh, Ninh Binh, Lam Dong, Binh Duong provinces and the Ministry of Transport are preparing feasibility study reports for the Hoa Binh-Moc Chau, Ninh Binh-Hai Phong, Tan Phu-Bao Loc, Bao Loc-Lien Khuong, Ho Chi Minh City-Thu Dau Mot-Chon Thanh, Dau Giay-Tan Phu expressway projects. Of these, 3 projects have been submitted to the Inter-sectoral Appraisal Council; however, the appraisal of the Dau Giay-Tan Phu and Tan Phu-Bao Loc projects is still slow. Son La and Lam Dong provinces are slow in preparing feasibility study reports for the Hoa Binh-Moc Chau and Bao Loc-Lien Khuong projects.

Regarding site clearance, implementing the Prime Minister's direction at the Steering Committee meetings and in Official Dispatch No. 54/CD-TTg dated May 28, 2024, localities are mobilizing the entire political system to actively implement the handover of construction sites; however, the remaining area is residential land, so the implementation is still difficult and stuck, not meeting the set progress, especially in the localities: Dong Nai, Khanh Hoa, Dak Lak, Tuyen Quang, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Da Nang, Hung Yen, Kien Giang. Investors and units under the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) have made efforts to relocate high-voltage power lines; however, the progress of implementation in some projects is still slow, with the risk of affecting the progress of the projects.

Regarding construction materials: projects in the Northern and Central regions: the supply of materials has basically met the construction needs. Projects in the Southern region: implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired the working group, worked with localities and assigned the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to resolve the source of construction materials for projects in the region. The Ministry of Transport has reported the overall plan for the demand for filling materials and the expected coordination plan; currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is coordinating with the Ministry of Transport to report to the Prime Minister the plan for allocating and coordinating material sources for each project, meeting the construction progress.

Regarding construction implementation: The Ministry of Transport is resolutely directing contractors to actively implement the North-South Eastern Expressway project in the 2021-2025 period, Khanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot, Chon Thanh-Duc Hoa, the progress is basically following the plan; in particular, the Can Tho-Ca Mau, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau projects, Ho Chi Minh road section Rach Soi-Ben Nhat, Go Quao-Vinh Thuan, the progress is still behind schedule. In the coming time, when the site and construction materials are cleared, investors and contractors will speed up to make up for the slow progress.

Construction progress in localities: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hung Yen, Long An, Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, An Giang, Ha Giang, Dong Thap closely follows the requirements; the remaining provinces have not met the requirements due to problems with construction sites as well as sources of filling materials.

Regarding the Long Thanh International Airport Project: DATP 1: the headquarters of the Immigration Department (Ministry of Public Security) is being implemented to meet the schedule; the remaining headquarters are approving technical designs and estimates as a basis for construction implementation; DATP 2 and DATP 3: are being implemented to meet the set schedule; DATP 4: is actively implementing procedures for selecting investors.

The T3 passenger terminal project at Tan Son Nhat International Airport is being constructed closely following the set schedule.

Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway Project: The packages are being implemented closely following the schedule, while the J3-1 package has not yet selected a contractor due to problems related to the contractor's binding conditions of the Loan Agreement, and is at risk of not being completed on schedule.

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station urban railway project is conducting trial runs and completing related procedures, expected to be commercially operational in July 2024. The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien urban railway project continues to conduct trial runs to assess system safety certification, expected to be commercially operational in the fourth quarter of 2024. Hoa Binh and Tien Giang provinces are slow in implementing technical design and selecting contractors to construct the Hoa Binh-Moc Chau and Cao Lanh-An Huu projects...

According to nhandan.vn