11 PM on July 31, from the office of the Management Board of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project (Tien Giang province), Mr. Nguyen Da Lu - Head of Planning - Technical Department of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company phoned the project office in Cai Be: “Hello, everyone who is there should go here, etc”.

Lunch with bread

By the time Lu phoned his colleagues at midnight like this, he and his project colleagues had worked for 15 hours. That day, they - the “warriors” of Deoca Group (seconded by the Group to Tien Giang to work for BOT Trung Luong - My Thuan), led by General Director Mai Manh Hong, had a very long meeting with Tien Giang province People's Committee. The meeting revolved around many contents but focused on the core issues: calculating unit price of material for the expressway project, the key to fix total investment of e-commerce expressway as an important basis for the Provincial People's Committee to sign the appendix of the contract and the funding bank to disburse capital, to open the last door, to speed up the project to finish in 2020 and inaugurate in 2021 as expected by the Government and the people.

Working from dawn with “commander” Mai Manh Hong, there were also his young teammates: Tran Van The and Nguyen Van Dung, Deputy General Directors; BOD secretaries Tu Viet An and Le Duc Tranh; young employees of the Finance and Planning department such as Hieu Minh, Nguyen Van Tho and Tran Thi Huyen, etc

At noon of that day, they ate bread in the office and worked through the noon. At 18:00, the provincial People's Committee gave each person a lunchbox and the Head of Legal Department, Dang Xuan Chinh ate and praised incessantly: “Delicious!...” It was just a normal lunchbox but it might be the hunger and the whole-day working that consumed a lot of energy and made Chinh feel delicious.

The working session was persistent and no less stressful. Right at 8 am when entering the meeting room, the atmosphere was heated when the method of calculating unit price of materials for the project without including transportation cost given by the representative of Tien Giang province Department of Construction was interrupted and reacted drastically by “commander” Mai Manh Hong: why not calculate the price of materials until gathered at the site, so where is the transportation cost?

Dinner

Also during the meeting, the two sides sometimes interrupted each other when debating over relevant issues. For example, before 2017, the price of materials was the on-site price calculated by the Department of Construction. However, “I wonder why you are applying the wholesale price in the center?” - Mr. Mai Manh Hong expressed surprise. And Mr. Hong said that “we have made difficulties for ourselves with unnecessary absurdities.

The reaction together with the elaborate presentation which was sometimes stressful, flexible but always drastic made Mr. Pham Anh Tuan - Vice Chairman of Tien Giang province People's Committee give in: “Regardless of the calculation method, it must be accurate and reasonable”. And the two sides had to argue with each other for a long time before agreeing to recalculate the prices. The recalculation of prices spent a lot of time during this meeting. Until 21:30, the assistant team of Tien Giang province only temporarily calculated the prices as required by “commander” Hong. This meant that the partners had to work continuously for nearly 13 hours before drastic demands from the investors. And from that basic calculation, the “warriors of Deoca” continued to calculate, adjust and finalize the figures in the night to keep up with the next day's work with the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Construction, the “ambassadors” representing the central state management agencies, discussing e-commerce, financial plans and determining all related issues, decisive step to clear the project.

23h30, Tu Viet An quietly brought over a dozen cups of coffee, orange juice for teammates. People still worked on computers and tables with dense numbers, just calculating, mumbling, typing, editing. Sometimes, some people closed their eyes for a moment. Then opened again, staring at the screen. “Commander” Mai Manh Hong still went back and forth with the teammates, etc

Working through the night

At 1am, Cai Be group car arrived: Thao, Viet, Trung, Hai, Tuan and Quy. They together got to work and so on like a relay race.

5am. The sound of tennis balls on the side of the PPC building boomed. Some people went to play sports early to start a new day. The working room of Deoca warrior group was still lit. Then 6am, then 7am, etc. The whole yard of the provincial People’s Committee building was crowded with people going in and out. At the computers, the boys and girls were still working. The clock’s hour hand pointed number 8 of the new day, i.e 24 hours in a row, etc. All were preparing for a new working day. Data obtained after the last 24 hours would be used for this new working day. These inanimate figures and quiet work determine the success or failure of the project - the quick and slow completion of the project.

In the future when our next generations travel smoothly on Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway or travel from North to South, they will certainly admire the beautiful, new roads, compliment the Vietnamese hands - Vietnamese wisdom with pride and thanks for the sweat of the workers poured down. They also should know that: these roads are created not only by steel, cement and sweat but also by the tenacious spirit of Deoca warriors.

QUY NHON