Localities will be assigned to invest in 1,650km of highways.

On the morning of June 1, under the chairmanship of Mr. Le Dinh Tho - Deputy Minister of Transport, the Ministry of Transport held an online conference to exchange and share experiences in implementing the North - South Expressway project. The conference was connected with 37 points where the North - South Expressway project is being built.

At Nghe An bridge, there were comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of a number of departments, branches and sectors. Photo: TL

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho emphasized: The 10-year socio-economic development strategy for 2021 - 2030 was approved by the 13th National Party Congress, which identified one of the three strategic breakthroughs as "Continuing to perfect the synchronous and modern economic and social infrastructure, focusing on prioritizing the development of key transport infrastructure..." with the goal of "By 2030, strive for the whole country to have about 5,000 km of expressways, of which the Eastern North-South expressway will be completed by 2025".

To achieve that goal, in 2022, the Government submitted to the National Assembly for approval the investment policy of 6 expressway projects (North-South expressway phase 2021 - 2025, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot, Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang, Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 and Hanoi Ring Road 4) with a total length of about 1,300 km, total investment capital of nearly 400,000 billion VND, of which about 500 km are assigned to localities for implementation.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport and localities have been completing procedures to prepare for the construction of about 700 km, of which localities will carry out about 400 km. And are arranging funding to deploy about 900 km after 2025, of which localities will carry out about 750 km.

North-South Expressway intersection with National Highway 46. Photo: Thanh Thanh Nhat Tuan

According to the Deputy Minister of Transport, recently, with the strong direction of the Prime Minister and the participation of departments, branches and localities, many important and effective solutions have been proposed to organize and implement expressway projects.

One of them is decentralization and delegation of authority in investment management, construction, resource mobilization from the central to local levels, while promoting the potential and strengths of each region and locality.

"To achieve the goal of the whole country striving to have over 3,000km of expressway by 2025. This is a huge but extremely difficult task. The implementation of expressway projects in each locality has different characteristics, so it is necessary to have working sessions to exchange experiences and lessons learned from management, investment and investment preparation practices" - Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho said.

At the conference, representatives of agencies of the Ministry of Transport and localities implementing the North-South Expressway project exchanged and shared lessons learned in leadership, direction, investment, project planning, contractor selection, survey and design, survey supervision, construction management, and promoting decentralization and delegation of authority.

At the same time, propose difficulties and problems related to supply sources, fluctuations in construction material prices... coordination between the Ministry of Transport and localities,...

Regarding the recommendations of localities, Deputy Minister Le Dinh Tho said that the Ministry of Transport will collect recommendations and submit them to the Prime Minister.