According to a conclusion by Mr. Binh at a cabinet meeting on the project, North-South Expressway is a national important project, which investment policy needs be submitted to the Government for approval before being reported to the Politburo and the National Assembly as per the Public Investment Law.
Mr. Binh assigned the Ministry of Transport to improve the project’s report and send it to the Politburo and the National Assembly. The report should make clear total investment capital, implementation progress and analyze the need and efficiency of specific mechanisms for the project.
He said that specific mechanisms were necessary to lure investors and speed up the expressway’s progress; requiring relevant sides to ensure wide, public and transparent principles in bid invitation instead of appointing contractors.
Ministries and agencies should have tight supervision mechanisms over the project according to their functions and duties, assign officials who will take responsibility to the Government and the Prime Minister and fight against loss, waste and “group benefits”.
He asked them not to propose the NA to provide guarantees for the project.
Ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance, Construction, Natural Resources and Environment, Justice and the State Bank of Vietnam should give their opinions in writing about policies to build the expressway within the jurisdiction of the Government, Prime Minister and deputy Prime Ministers.
Their opinions should be sent to the Government Office and the Ministry of Transport. The ministry will synthesize and report to the Government and the Prime Minister to consider and decide.
Mr. Binh agreed with taking Dau Giay-Phan Thiet project into the North-South Expressway project.
A national steering committee will be established to instruct the project implementation. Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung will be head of the committee, responsible for instructing the implementation. The Ministry of Transport will be responsible for carrying out the project.
The State Bank of Vietnam has been assigned to soon report to the PM about measures to mobilize domestic funds for the project, tightly control credit supply, ensure contractors to have sufficient equity capital in line with Decree 15 on public private partnership, prevent investors from fully using bank loans to build BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) projects.
Ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance, Natural Resources and Environment, Construction and relevant agencies should closely supervise the implementation of BOT projects, he added.
