The remark was made by Head of the Public - Private Partnership Department under MoT Nguyen Danh Huy, during a recent workshop aimed at calling for BOT investment in some sections of the North-South expressway project. Earlier, most BOT road investors had been assigned to undertake the execution.
There would not be an open pathway for incapable investors and those lacking experience in executing major projects.
MoC will assist BOT road investors facing revenue shortages to help them secure investment. (Photo: Tuoitre)
Bidding for the execution of the expressway sections goes some way to improve financial transparency. However, the capital mobilization for these sections remain a thorny problem, said Nguyen Duc Kien, deputy head of the Economic Committee under the National Assembly (NA).
He said the North-South expressway project is in need of VND118 trillion ($5.07 billion), including VND55 trillion ($2.36 billion) mobilized from the State budget, and VND20 trillion ($860 million) for site clearance. The remaining capital is to be allocated for sections which pose a high risk of payback due to low traffic density.
The NA official said public private partnership (PPP) format used for the expressway project is set to facilitate the transfer of cleared ground for investors so that they could save costs and maximize profits from applying cutting-edge technology into the construction process.
Local firms are likely to meet financing-related criteria, but fail to satisfy those in relation to execution experience, said Nguyen Van Loi from the Association for Vietnam Transport Infrastructure Investors.
At present, investors are required to have previous experience in undertaking similar projects whose total investment capital reaches 50 percent of the expressway sections. Thus, lots of domestic firms would fail to meet this requirement due to a lack of experience in deploying large-scale projects, Loi pointed out.
The regulation incidentally puts domestic investors at a disadvantage in comparison to powerful foreign firms.
State agencies should create favorable conditions for domestic firms to participate in large-scale projects, Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, proposed.
