On December 16, 2019 at Tien Giang Province Convention Center, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) and syndicated banks officially signed credit contracts and documents for construction investment projects Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway under the BOT form with Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company.
Under the close attention and guidance of the Government, the Prime Minister, the State Bank and central ministries, Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project has had fundamental changes: Transfer of competent State management from the Ministry of Transport to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province, eliminating the weak shareholders, the total after-adjusted investment capital is VND 12,668 billion, the direct support budget is 2,186 billion VND, the equity capital ownership and other mobilized capital committed to reach a minimum of VND 3,400 billion, Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company stood out to run. Therefore, the credit contract signed between the project enterprise and 4 banks from 2018 needs to be replaced to accord with the actual situation.
Credit contracts and documents Signing ceremony of Trung Luong - My Thuan project
Since the new financial plan was issued under Decision No. 2463 / QD-UBND dated August 2, 2019, VietinBank continues to act as the focal point, together with BIDV, Agribank and VPBank to reevaluate and complete the general appraisal report from November 18, 2019, towards the completion of the remaining stages in December 2019 under the credit granting process, appropreate with the capacity and conditions of each bank. The total committed loan capital of banks for Trung Luong - My Thuan project is VND 6,686 billion, of which: VietinBank is VND 3,300 billion, BIDV is VND 1,500 billion, AgriBank is VND 1,000 billion and VPBank is 886 billion dong.
Determining to connect the route in 2020 and absolutely complete the project in 2021, in the spirit of not backing down, promoting cooperation, positive control, proactively coordinating, understanding and seriously implementing direction of the Government, the opinion of the State Bank and meet the expectations of people in the Mekong Delta, since March 2019 Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company, with the participation of executive Experienced staffs from Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company have solved a series of legal procedures.
The project adjustment dossier has been completed, the Ministry of Transport has appraised and approved. The project was also checked and reviewed twice by the State Audit Office, which is the basis for eliminating ineligible investors such as Yen Khanh Company, and successfully organizing the General Meeting of Shareholders, rearange the project administration board.
Recently, on December 3, 2019, the project received VND 1,390 billion out of a total of VND 2,186 billion capital from the State Budget. For the rest, investors continue to petition Tien Giang province to have an early disbursement plan for the project to accelerate the progress. Project enterprise leaders have directed relevant departments to actively follow up, provide information and work with syndicated loan banks. In addition, it also requires the fierce involvement of Tien Giang People's Committee in site clearance, adherence to the project implementation schedule, simultaneously made strong commitments, eliminating the concerns about risks and potential problems.
Mr. Tran Minh Binh - Member of the Board of Managements, General Director of VietinBank said: “Investment in the development of infrastructure systems, including important transport projects such as Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project is a proper policy of the Government. Understanding the importance of this arterial road to the development of the country, VietinBank has early approached and evaluated the project and actively take the role as the leading bank to invite other credit institutions BIDV, Agribank and VPBank to participate in the appraisal and provision of credit capital on the basis of current regulations, to sign a Credit Contract for syndicated loan for the project from 2018. Prior to the fundamental changes of in 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam has timely instructions for 4 banks to follow the project in order to contribute ideas and accompany with the project enterprises and Tien Giang People's Committee in the process of reconstructing financial plan, as well as regularly working and discussing with the project enterprise and with the related parties to complete the General Evaluation Report in the spirit of both being consistent with the contents of the re-approved project, ensuring loan supply to keep up with the urgent construction progress, and at the same time accordance with SBV regulations and process and related laws”.
The implementation of this key expressway project has been paid much attention and guidance and active support by the Party, National Assembly, Government, ministries, central branches and People's Committee of Tien Giang province. “We hope that the project will continue to receive the attention and direction form the State leaders, and at the same time, I propose the project enterprise to implement the construction according to the plan which has been approved; closely coordinate with 4 syndicated loan banks in the disbursement process according to the regulations on the construction items, ensuring the the targets of route connection in 2020 in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister ”- Mr. Tran Minh Binh said.
Project investors know that there will be many difficulties, but they are confident in their ability to control and comply with commitments with the bank, and ready to implement solutions to handle risks during project implementation.
With this credit contract and credit documents, the investor also strictly and seriously follows the necessary legal procedures for the competent State agency, Tien Giang province, and the parties to implement, avoid the sistuation of signing without disbursement, badly affects the project.
Mr. Nguyen Tan Dong, General Director of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company said: “The signing ceremony of the Credit Contract and the credit documents for the project is an important milestone, in order to realize capital sources in the total investment capital, contributing to speeding up the completion of 51km of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway. This is a living testament to the cohesion, smooth coordination between the parties, the best effort towards the success of the project, the determination to follow the directions of the Party, National Assembly, Government and meet the expectation of 20 million people in the Mekong Delta ”.
