Vehicles travel on an expressway in Vietnam. The Ministry of Transport wants to finish the selection of investors for eight sections of the North-South Expressway this year so that work can begin next year and in 2021. (Photo: Vietnam Finance)
Nguyen Dang Truong, head of the Public Procurement Agency under the MPI, told the local media that the Ministry of Transport (MOT) is directly involved in the execution of the North-South Expressway project, reported Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper.
Currently, the MOT is sending out prequalification documents to those bidders who are keen on the eight subprojects, as part of the big-ticket project, under public-private partnerships (PPP).
According to Ministry of Transport (MoT), the interested investors include 26 domestic and 14 foreign firms from France, South Korea, France, UK, mainland China and Hong Kong. Together, they have acquired 120 bidding documents for eight public-private partnership (PPP) sections of the expressway.
With regard to foreign investors, he stressed that any investor, whether at home or abroad, can participate in the bidding process if they meet the requirements of the Bidding Law and have the capacity, experience and feasible solutions.
He said that this is a vital project, and the expressway is an arterial route, so the investors must be truly competent and experienced when chosen.
Regarding the requirements for international investors, he explained that they have to prove their experience with similar projects in a nation that is not their home country. It must be shown that during the execution of these projects, there was no litigation or dispute.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang said that many foreign investors from Japan, South Korea and China have submitted bids. “As we know, the number of investors from South Korea is larger than that of China,” he said.
Earlier, the MOT’s PPP Department, told the local media that project management units have sent 120 sets of bidding documents to the interested investors.
Deadline for securing bidding documents is July 10, after which the ministry will start the bidding process for the eight PPP components, said Nguyen Viet Huy, Deputy Head of the PPP department under MoT.
Bidders will be put on the shortlist if they meet at least 60% of the requirements. Financial capacity accounts for 60% of the overall score, while experience and methods of execution make up 30% and 10%, respectively.
The government will cover land acquisition costs, and tolls will be set according to a specific frame and remain unchanged for years, Mr Huy added.
Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung asked relevant agencies to quickly identify and clear land needed for the major expressway project.
The government has specified 11 components of the North-South Expressway among its top priorities this year. Three of them are publicly funded and the rest will be built under PPPs. Specifically, work on two of the three public-funded sections is likely to begin in the second quarter of this year, while work on the eight PPP sections could begin next April.
In the first phase, some 654 kilometers of the 2,100-kilometer cross-country expressway will be split into eight components financed through PPP, while three others will be funded by the Government.
The 11 sections, starting from Northern Nam Dinh province to Vinh Long Province to the southwest of HCMC, are expected to cost more than VND118.7 trillion (roughly US$5.5 billion), with VND55 trillion coming from the State budget.
