North-South expressway’s eastern section to open in 2025

Vietnam will strive to open the eastern section of the North-South Expressway and build 3,000 kilometers of expressways by 2025, according to a newly-passed National Assembly resolution.

Under Resolution 100, the parliament asked the Ministry of Transport to reform administrative procedures, shorten investment procedures, speed up construction of transport infrastructure investment projects, especially projects of national importance and other key projects of the transport sector, while ensuring quality and efficiency.

The National Assembly also requested the ministry to closely coordinate with other ministries, sectors and localities to promptly handle difficulties and obstacles in site clearance, citizen resettlement, relocation of technical infrastructure and waste disposal areas. It was also asked to ensure sufficient material resources for important transport infrastructure projects in the Mekong Delta region.

Besides, the ministry should quickly compile and submit regulations on toll collection for expressways that have used the state budget, it directed.

The ministry must submit, by the end of this year, specific and feasible solutions to completely solve problems and inadequacies in some build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.

Resolution 100 envisages that by 2025, Vietnam will have about 3,000 kilometers of expressways and basically open the eastern section of the North-South expressway.

The ministry should also submit to the National Assembly the government’s investment policy for the North-South high-speed railway project.

Another target is to improve efficiency in the use of state budget capital, remove difficulties and obstacles and maximize non-state resources. The resolution calls for the application of diverse, flexible investment contracts under the public-private partnership (PPP) format in accordance with advantages of different sectors.

The parliament has also asked the ministry to promote the logistics industry to reduce costs for businesses and increase the contribution of logistics services to the economy towards making the Vietnamese economy more competitive.

Another task is to synchronously plan and invest in public transport systems, especially urban and inter-provincial railways, in accordance with a roadmap to limit the use of personal vehicles in large urban areas.

A model of urban development associated with public transport under the transit-oriented development (TOD) model should be piloted.

Easier vehicle registration

The ministry should also review and complete the legal framework on vehicle registration, thereby improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management and making the process more convenient for people and businesses.

For this, it should promote private services and step up application of information technology in vehicle registration in order to ensure synchronization, publicity and transparency.

Towards preventing corruption, inspections should be strengthened and the sector must strictly handle individuals and organizations that commit violations in the registration process.

The ministry should also build a strict control mechanism to prevent corruption in training, testing and issuing driver licenses; as also stop the provision of driving licenses for incompetent people.