On March 9, VietinBank (the focal bank) and co-financing banks disbursed the first loan for 4 bidding packages at Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project.

After nearly 12 years encountered many difficulties, with the efforts of VietinBank and co-financing banks, the project will be completed as committed, effectively serving for social economic development of Mekong Delta provinces.

Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Project is a component of Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan - Can Tho expressway project. This route plays an important role in connecting the socio-economic center of the Mekong Delta region with Ho Chi Minh City and the southern key economic region. The early completion of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway and synchronous connection of the expressway from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho will create a new resilience and remove traffic bottlenecks for the Southwest region.

The investment capital for Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT project is an important factor to accelerate the project's progress, thereby making a positive contribution to the completion of transport network and promoting social economic development for Mekong Delta region.

This project has been implemented since May 2008. Over nearly 12 years of starting, adjusting and restarting with many difficulties, finally Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT project has been provided capital by 4 credit institutions (CIs) represented by VietinBank.

VietinBank and syndicated banks sign credit contract and credit documents for the artery traffic project of Mekong Delta in December 2019.

Since the credit contract No.01/2019/HDTD/BOT-TLMT dated December 16, 2019 was signed, the focal credit institution - VietinBank (VietinBank branch 4 in Ho Chi Minh City is the focal) has been actively supporting and guiding Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Company to make and provide necessary documents to ensure disbursement conditions.

However, the project has stuck around nearly 12 years in the cycle of adjustments (investors, financial plans, contractors, competent state agencies, etc.) so the documents have not been fully recorded and unify but also dispersed. In addition, because the staff of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Company has just been involved in the project since March 2019, they can not fully understand the whole process of the project, causing difficulties in providing documents.

After more than a month of coordinating with BOT Company to review the documents, VietinBank took initiative in removing obstacles, giving specific and clear contents to agree with Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Company to prepare the Disbursement dossier. Until February 27, the bidding packages basically eligible for disbursement is 20/42 packages, and 22/42 packages are not.

On the proposal of the company, with the spirit of coordination and high responsibility, VietinBank has reviewed, inspected and implemented the first loan disbursement to pay for 4 bidding packages on March 9. With the efforts of credit institutions, the capital allocating for Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT project has been disbursed in the first 4 bidding packages. This is an important condition for investors and contractors to be assured to deploy construction on schedule, fulfilling the expectations of people in the Mekong Delta.

Representative of VietinBank Branch 4 of Ho Chi Minh City said: “In March, banks are expected to disburse about VND 2,000 billion for the eligible bidding packages”.