VET has determined that an agreement between Vinci Concessions and VEC will be signed in September.
“The agreement is being finalised,” Bui Hong Minh, PR Specialist at VEC, told VET. “The signing ceremony will be held during French President François Hollande’s official visit to Vietnam in early September.”
At a recent meeting with the Ministry of Transport (MoT), Vinci Concessions’ Deputy Chairman Fadi Selwan expressed a desire to seek investment opportunities and cooperate with VEC to secure the rights to expressway operations in Vietnam.
“We are also keen on investing in new expressway projects in the country,” Selwan said, adding that the group is willing to share its experience and transfer new technologies in the management, operation and implementation of expressway networks.
Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia told the meeting that the objective is for Vietnam to have 2,000 to 2,500 km of expressways by 2020. “We look forward to foreign investor participation to invest in highway and expressway projects in the form of public-private partnerships (PPP), for example the North-South Highway at a length of 1,300 km,” the minister said.
Infrastructure investment is attracting many investors to Vietnam. Other foreign investors are also keen to invest in and manage the country’s expressways, such as South Korea’s Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC) and East Nippon Expressway Company Limited (NEXCO) from Japan.
A number of Vietnamese investors are also involved in expressway projects, such as the Cuu Long Corporation for Investment, Development and Project Management of Infrastructure (CIPM) in the Trung Luong-My Thuan Highway, Ring Road No. 3 and No 4 in Ho Chi Minh City, and the Moc Bai-Ho Chi Minh City Highway.
The Vietnam Infrastructure Development and Finance Investment Joint Stock Company (VIDIFI) has completed and put into operation the Hanoi - Hai Phong Highway, with total investment of VND45 trillion ($2.02 billion).
VEC has six investment projects with total capital of VND135.4 trillion ($6 billion). Of the 600 km of expressways it is investing in, 350 km have been put into operation, or half of the expressways now in operation around the country.
Mai Tuan Anh, CEO of VEC, has told local media that many foreign investors are keen on securing the rights to expressway operations in Vietnam.
VEC has established three companies to operate three expressways: Noi Bai-Lao Cai, Cau Gie-Ninh Binh, and Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay.
Any sale of rights to expressway operations will be conducted by selling shares in the three companies. “If investors want to buy all shares then the State will sell all,” Tuan said.
