After accepting the invitation of BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan Company to assist in improving the management capability of this expressway project, Deoca Group immediately "joined" by finally taking a series of steps to restart the project that has been delayed for 10 years.
General Director Mai Manh Hong provides an update on project progress to Chairman Ho Minh Hoang (outermost, on the left), Mr. Thuan Huu, Member of the Party Central Committee, the Editor- in-Chief of Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper (the second from the left), and Mr. Doan Minh Huan, the Editor- in-Chief of Communist Review
Especially, from the middle of April until now, BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan has had specific activities to resolve and advance the project. Positive signal is that the project can be opened to traffic in 2020 as directed by the Prime Minister.
Political determination of the Government
According to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The: “Any issue related to responsibility of the Ministry will be performed by the Ministry. Any issue related to responsibility of the Province will be performed by the Province. There are things that we slow down, but there must be a good reason. We must carry out the direction of the Prime Minister in order to open to traffic basically by the end of 2020”. |
Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway (Tien Giang) was started in November 2009. After more than 5 years of stalemate, in February 2015, the project was restarted however it was delayed again due to many obstacles.
In order to solve the inadequacies for completion of the Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project, the Government Standing Committee delivered Prime Minister's Notice No. 99/TB-VPCP on March 18th, 2019, approving for the transfer of the Competent State Agency from the Ministry of Transport to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province so that the locality will be more proactive in coordinating with investors in solving legal issues of the project.
Endeavor to put the highway into traffic by the end of the year 2020 by reorganizing and restarting the project is like a political determination, fulfilling the Government's commitment to people in the Mekong Delta region.
It is relatively uncommon that a certain expressway is cared by the National Assembly and the Government as much as the Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway project.
One time, speaking at the opening session of the People's Council of Can Tho City on December 5th, 2017, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan spent a lot of time informing voters of the resolutions passed by the National Assembly at the 4th meeting session. In which, there is a resolution on the investment policy to build a number of highway sections on the North - South route to the east for the period 2017-2020. The Chairwoman of the National Assembly said that the Mekong Delta has the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway (more than 40 km) and now Trung Luong - My Thuan highway section has been investing in this region. According to the plan, the highways to Can Tho city will be put into traffic by 2020.
Overview of the conference on resolving and promoting Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project
Over the past time, the Government and the Prime Minister have been holding many meetings to discuss about solutions for the obstacles as well as promotion for the construction progress of this expressway project. The Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has inspected the route twice, the other Deputy Prime Ministers also have had a lot of work sessions regarding other aspects such as policy, capital etc., towards this project.
Recently, on April 20th, journalist Thuan Huu - Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Deputy Head of Central Propaganda Department, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan (People) Newspaper, Chairman of Vietnam Journalists Association has also visited the project site of Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway.
After going into the field on the construction site belonging to bidding packages of the project, noting report from BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan Joint Stock Company, as well as capturing the thoughts and aspirations of the workers, Mr. Thuan Huu was impressed by the participation with high determination taking specific and drastic implementation activities of the new investor. Mr. Thuan Huu expressed his belief that investor will ensure the project to complete on schedule.
“To navigate the field, the responsibility must be defined clearly”
That is one of the slogans set by investor when restarting the project.
At the meeting, the Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The affirmed that: “This project has received the special attention of voters throughout the country. There are still many obstacles but we have to solve them to complete the project”. Turning slogan into action, on April 19th, 2019, in My Tho City, Ministry of Transport, Provincial Party Committee - People's Committee of Tien Giang Province and BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan Joint Stock Company, for the first time, the three parties officially gathered together to recognize real problems of the project and discuss ways to solve these problems in order to complete the construction of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway in the most favorable way.
These obstacles, such as the transfer of the Competent State Agency from the Ministry of Transport to Tien Giang Province, have not yet completed due to the administrative procedures. Minister Nguyen Van The pledged that: "The Ministry will coordinate strictly and closely with the province to carry out this transfer".
Regarding the VND 2,186 billion funding that the Government recorded as capital to support for the project, the Minister said: “I have signed a written request to the ministries and branches to allocate this source of capital and will urge the Government to disburse fund for the project".
The leader of Tien Giang province said that the site clearance has completed 50.51km reaching 98% of the workload. Only 590m has not been handed over and the province commits to engage drastically in the near future.
Representative of the province acknowledged that because the procedures of changing the management agency from the State agency have not been completed, the access to capital has not been implemented yet.If the capital of 500 billion VND (out of 2,186 billion VND supported by the Government), cannot disburse promptly, the project will be facing many difficulties.
According to Permanent Vice President of Vietnam Journalists Association Ho Quang Loi: “From the perspective of journalism and media communication, an open and candid way of exchanging information with the news agencies has affirmed the curiosity, transparency and the drastic action at work of Deoca Group". |
One day later (on April 20th), the conference on resolving problems and promoting Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project in Ben Tre was held with the participation of the leaders of Vietnam Journalists Association, Communist Review, the Department of Transport of the Mekong Delta provinces, Vietnam Association of Road Infrastructure Investors, investors, and contractors of the project. Representative of the investor after reporting a series of difficulties, as well as drawing specific steps has committed to speed up the project delivery, avoid missing deadline again which has been promised to fellow people in the Mekong Delta region.
Mr. Ho Minh Hoang, Chairman of Board of Directors of BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan said firmly that: "Any contractor fails to ensure the quality and schedule will be replaced".
The solutions proposed by the conference to redeem the progress of the stalemate have been used as the basis for adjusting the total progress of the project. Investor supposes that the objective reason of the previous delay is the organization of project implementation. The parties must recognize its weaknesses and in-deficiencies to implement the project according to normal practice, thereby, admit existing problems and propose specific solutions as well as frankly acknowledge its weaknesses and limitations, readily sitting together to solve the problems.
The investor also suggested establishing a comprehensive plan to handle existing obstacles to complete the delayed work. At that same conference, representatives of the Ministry of Transport, Tien Giang province, investors, sponsor banks showed the spirit of "not to blame each other", and wholeheartedly seek the curiosity.
The plan of putting into traffic of the Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project by the end of 2020 is like a loaded gun. In order for the gun to shoot the shot on target, the involved parties must truly unite, cooperate and show their determination to complete the project on schedule as promised to the 23 million people in the Mekong Delta region.
Nguyen Quang Thanh
