Mr. Truong Viet Dong - Party Secretary, Chairman of the Board of Members of VEC - wrote an article sharing about VEC's 20-year pioneering journey.
Pioneering model of attaching responsibility to the product
Faced with the constant traffic congestion on some national highways, most seriously at the gateways to Hanoi, in 2000, the Ministry of Transport used the surplus capital after bidding from the National Highway 1 upgrade project to test the construction of Vietnam's first two expressways, the Phap Van - Cau Gie section and the Hanoi - Bac Ninh section.
Seeing the effectiveness and benefits of investing in highway construction, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Government implement the following highway sections: Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong, Lang - Hoa Lac, Da Nang - Quang Ngai, Hanoi - Hai Phong... A plan for the construction of Vietnam's highway network by 2010, 2015 and 2020 was proposed.
The most difficult problem was where to find the capital to implement this ambitious plan. From here, the idea of establishing a company to invest and develop the highway was formed.
The project to establish VEC has clearly defined the development roadmap for each stage. The first stage mainly relies on State capital - budget capital and capital from bond issuance. In the next stage, the State supports in structuring and guaranteeing loan sources. In the development stage, VEC collects tolls to recover capital and accumulates profits to invest in building the expressway network according to the plan.
The project has received consensus from many agencies and units. In October 2004, the Ministry of Transport decided to establish the Vietnam Expressway Development Investment Company.
The birth of VEC is an experiment of the Government and the Transport sector. From the classic model of waiting for budget capital, investing in projects and then transferring them to the operating unit, VEC has to search for and mobilize capital sources, then deploy investment in routes in the most effective way to recover capital as soon as possible, creating resources to reinvest in other expressway projects. The initiative to attach responsibility to the invested products is one of the new features of the VEC model.
In about 10 years (2004 - 2013), from a starting charter capital of only 1,000 billion VND, with the Government's guarantee, VEC arranged capital sources to invest in expressway projects, with a total investment of up to 108 trillion VND.
VEC has confidently accepted larger-scale expressway projects. That is the Noi Bai – Lao Cai expressway project, the largest in Vietnam with a total length of 245km passing through 5 provinces and cities: Hanoi, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Lao Cai. The total investment is over 30,000 billion VND.
The Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway project uses ODA capital for the first time, using mixed capital sources with a length of nearly 56km, connecting Ho Chi Minh City with the provinces of the Southeast region.
The Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway project, with a total length of nearly 60km passing through Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, and Dong Nai, is the largest infrastructure project in the South with a total investment of more than 31,000 billion VND.
Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway Project, the first expressway in the Central region with a total investment of more than 31,500 billion VND.
With the growth of VEC, in October 2010, the Ministry of Transport decided to convert VEC from a company to Vietnam Expressway Corporation.
Promote linkages and participate in public-private partnership projects
Affirming its role as a “locomotive” in investing in the development of Vietnam’s expressway network, the Corporation has continued to develop a project to invest in additional charter capital. On that basis, the Prime Minister decided to supplement and increase charter capital for VEC.
Aiming for sustainable development, VEC will plan to use idle capital reasonably and effectively to preserve and develop capital in accordance with regulations.
In the field of construction investment, in parallel with accelerating the progress and putting the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway into operation in 2025, VEC completed the project adjustment procedures to implement and complete the remaining items of the Da Nang - Quang Ngai route.
In addition, VEC will focus resources and step up work with competent authorities to approve investment plans to expand existing expressways.
Including the project to expand the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay expressway, the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh section from 4 lanes to 10 lanes, expected to be implemented after 2035.
In the period of 2024-2028, the project to expand Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway, Yen Bai - Lao Cai section from 2 lanes to 4 lanes will be implemented.
Project to expand Cau Gie – Ninh Binh expressway, Dai Xuyen – Liem Tuyen section from 4 lanes to 6 lanes. Implementation period from 2024 – 2027.
In addition, some routes on the North-South expressway axis will be studied and invested in by VEC on a complete scale. VEC also studies some expressways that are meaningful to serve the goals of national security and defense, socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction, and are difficult to attract other economic sectors to participate.
VEC aims to have toll revenue reach 6,000 billion VND/year by 2025 and by 2035, the unit will manage and operate 1,500km of expressway, effectively organize maintenance and repair work, and promote investment efficiency in projects.
Identifying attracting high-quality human resources as one of the "key" factors for VEC to successfully implement its strategy, in the coming time, the Corporation has oriented to innovate the salary, bonus, and remuneration mechanism of employees, managers, and business operators in a reasonable and highly competitive manner associated with labor productivity and production and business efficiency; Strengthening training, fostering, and improving the professional qualifications of the management team and employees to promptly meet the development of VEC in each stage. Truong Viet Dong - Party Secretary, Chairman of VEC Board of Members |
Phuong Dung
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