On March 4, 2020, at Tien Giang Province's Conference Center, Mr. Tran Van Dung - Vice Chairman of Tien Giang People's Committee chaired the meeting to solve problems related to disbursement of credit capital for Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project stage 1, under the form of BOT contract. The meeting was attended by representatives of the State Bank of Vietnam, representatives of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company, the key credit-granting bank Vietinbank and related departments / agencies of Tien Giang province.

The credit capital of VND 6,686 billion (more than 50% of the total investment capital of the project), though has been signed by the parties since December 16, 2019, but after nearly 3 months has not been disbursed. The reason for this delay is because of the long-standing problems between the competent State agency, Tien Giang People's Committee and credit-granting bank have not been completely solved, and Tien Giang People's Committee has not clarified its authority to sign documents related to the project that the credit institution requires.

Photo of the meeting

At the meeting, Mr. Tran Van Dung said that the last 2 disbursement conditions in the document that VietinBank sent to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province required clarifying the authority to sign documents that were carefully considered by the provincial People's Committee. At the same time, other related ministries and agencies, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Ministry of Transport, have also given opinions. The People's Committee of Tien Giang province affirmed that the commitment to increase ticket price signed by the Vice Chairman of Tien Giang Province on behalf of the Provincial People's Committee was consistent with the provisions of law, the procedures and working regulations of the Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee. "Tien Giang has made every effort in our ability and if the problem is not agreed by the parties, we can only continue to report to the Prime Minister" Mr. Dung said.

Mr. Tran Van The - Deputy General Director of Trung Luong- My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company said that from the beginning, it was very difficult to arrange credit capital. The project enterprises spent more than 6 months to negotiate and sign credit contracts and nearly 3 months to solve more than 17 disbursement prerequisites specified in the Credit Contract. According to the terms of the loan agreement, if the loan cannot be disbursed on March 16, 2020, the contract will automatically void.

Mr. Tran Van The - Deputy General Director of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company spoke at the meeting

“Until March 16, if the bank still do not disburse but continue to give unclear reasons and the People's Committee of Tien Giang Province could not disentangle the legal procedures issues, we could only delay the completion of the project. It’s impossibe to complete the route at the end of 2020 and inaugurate in 2021 as committed to the Prime Minister before. From March 2019 until now, when Deo Ca Group participated in the project management, we have made 34% of the total volume, 3 times increase compared to the past 10-year. We have also tried to do everything we can, ” Mr. The stated.

Vietinbank acknowledges the opinions of the People's Committee of Tien Giang, Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT and reports to the higher competent authorities for disbursement in accordance with the signed credit contract.

Previously, on February 27, 2020, Vietinbank sent document 262 / CV-NHCT.CN to the People's Committee of Tien Giang Province, Credit Department of the State Bank and Project Enterprise. Accordingly, the credit-granting bank announced: “Credit institutions have cooperated with Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company to basically inspect to ensure the fulfillment of disbursement conditions under the Credit Contract and the loan is expected to be disbursed before March 5, 2020. Vietinbank as credit-granting bank, would like to ask the People's Committee of Tien Giang province to clarify the remaining problems in order to ensure that the credit capital of the project can be disbursed as planned, contributing to bringing the project to completion on schedule as the direction of the Prime Minister ”.

Minh Anh