How many contractors are qualified to carry out large traffic projects?

At the interview with the Minister of Transport on the afternoon of June 9, delegate Hoang Anh repeated Mr. Nguyen Van The that only big projects are behind schedule. However, the Ministry advised the Government to submit the next 5 major projects at this meeting. “Thus, in the near future, we have about 9 highway projects at the same time, the possibility of delay is present.“, said Mr. Hoang Anh.

This delegate asked Minister Thee to say how many traffic construction contractors in Vietnam are capable of carrying out these projects and how many machines and equipments that can be constructed at the same time with the same amount of time. 9 projects? “If the progress is not guaranteed, what is the minister’s advisory responsibility?“, asked Mr. Hoang Anh.

Responding to this issue, Minister Nguyen Van The said that the website of the Construction Administration Department (Ministry of Construction) has stated a complete list of traffic contractors. We checked and found that there were 48 contractors who used to do level 1 traffic works (if you can do level 1, you can do highways). “4These 8 contractors have the capacity to do projects from 1,000 to 5,000 billion VND. In which, there are 2 contractors who can do projects over 5,000 billion VND. With such a large force, we can completely organize bidding and select contractors‘, the Minister affirmed.

According to the Minister, during the project implementation, it is not the winning contractor that will do the whole thing. Usually, the main contractor will have 30% to hire small contractors to support (contractors will have to register in the bidding documents). Therefore, in addition to the above 48 contractors, there are hundreds of contractors who can do projects of 300-400 billion VND to participate in the implementation of projects.

Investors are not interested in BOT

Delegate Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, asked: Why are investors currently not interested in BOT projects, especially in the field of bridges and roads?

Mr. Than also asked the Minister of Transport to specify what percentage of completion of national key projects by 12/2025 would be considered “basically completed”?

Responding to a question from a member of the National Assembly, Minister Nguyen Van The once again reiterated the difference between a BOT project before Resolution 437 and now BOT is implemented in the form of PPP. Current PPP projects are on parallel roads, expressways, not on monorails. The previous BOT was implemented according to Decree 108, so the current BOT frustration is mainly focused on the existing road.

“One of the concerns of investors is bad debt due to lack of revenue and some stations have problems. Therefore, we need to completely solve the problems, including the interests of investors and banks involved.”, emphasized the Minister.

Mr. The added, when dealing with this, representatives of banks all expressed their support. However, they wish to solve the old problems of the BOT. The Ministry of Transport will try to coordinate with other ministries and sectors to carefully review a number of resources for definitive handling.

Regarding the question of basic projects to be completed in 2025, Minister The explained:Essentially complete means that by that point, normal sections of the road are fully paved. Only some sections need to be treated for soft ground that takes a long time“.