Vietnam gov’t agrees on passenger orientation for transnational high-speed rail route

The Vietnamese government has agreed in-principle that the transnational high-speed railway route being planned in the country will be geared primarily for passenger transportation.

A cabinet meeting Wednesday reached a consensus on building a modern and synchronous 1,541km-railway route to serve both economic and security-defense purposes, carrying light cargo when necessary.

The meeting also agreed that a proposal to this effect will be sent to higher authorities.

The project is slated for completion in 2035, a decade earlier than the 2045 target set by the Politburo, the country’s supreme decision-making body.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed concerned agencies to study mechanisms for technology transfer and railway industry development; as also policies to diversify capital sources and increase decentralization for this industry that is currently struggling to stay afloat.

He said the existing railway system should be upgraded to meet cargo transportation demand and serve tourism development.

Work should be accelerated to build three rail lines connecting with China and a new one between Lao capital Vientiane and Vung Ang in the central coastal province of Ha Tinh, he added.

At a July 11 meeting, PM Chinh had called for studies to determine the shortest possible North-South express railway route with a designed speed of 350 km/hour.

Such a high-speed train can add one percentage point to Vietnam’s GDP growth per year in the 2025-2037 period, according to research jointly conducted by the Ministry of Transport and the General Statistics Office.

To meet the project's estimated cost of about $70 billion, the Vietnamese government has proposed borrowing from Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

At a July 16 meeting with PM Chinh in Hanoi, Jin Liqun, president of the Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), promised to provide Vietnam with approximately $5 billion in financing at preferential interest rates to support infrastructure projects.