Discussing the investment policy for more than 700 km of the North-South expressway in the East under the form of public investment

On the afternoon of January 6, at the first extraordinary session, the 15th National Assembly held a group discussion session on the Investment Policy for the North-South Expressway Construction Project in the East for the 2021-2025 period and the draft Resolution on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Can Tho city.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the discussion at the Nghe An delegation. Attending were Comrade Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and representatives of a Committee of the Provincial People's Council, relevant departments and branches.

Overview of the group discussion session at the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province. Photo: Thanh Duy

According to the Road Network Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050, the expressway network includes 41 routes with a total length of about 9,014 km, of which 1,163 km have been put into operation and 916 km are under investment.

The North-South Eastern Expressway is located from Huu Nghi border gate (Lang Son) to Ca Mau, with a total length of about 2,063 km, with a scale of 4-6 lanes, and urban gateway sections with a scale of 8-10 lanes. Up to now, 478 km have been put into operation, 829 km are being invested, and the remaining 756 km have not been invested.

In order to soon complete the North-South Eastern Expressway, creating momentum and spillover to restore and develop the country's socio-economy, the Government proposes to the National Assembly: Decide on the investment policy for the North-South Eastern Expressway Construction Project in the 2021-2025 period with locations from Ha Tinh (Bai Vot) to Quang Tri (Cam Lo), from Quang Ngai to Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa) and from Can Tho to Ca Mau. In the 2021-2025 period, about 729 km will be invested, divided into 12 independently operated component projects and implemented in the form of public investment.

Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Transport Nguyen Duc An proposed some contents about the expressway project. Photo: Thanh Duy

Clearing the land for all component projects on a 6-lane scale, and component projects on the Can Tho - Ca Mau section on a 4-lane scale as approved in the planning. The preliminary total investment of the Project is 146,990 billion VND. Implementation progress: prepare for investment and implement the Project from 2021, basically complete in 2025.

Discussing this content, from the practical implementation of the North-South Expressway through Nghe An province, expanding and upgrading National Highway 1A, representatives of departments, branches and the People's Committee of Nghe An province attending the meeting proposed a number of contents such as: allowing the appointment of contractors for consulting units, building resettlement areas to shorten the procedural time; allowing the appointment of construction contractors, but should reduce 5% according to the estimate. Opinions also mentioned many solutions to remove obstacles for the work of granting material mines.

Standing Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh speaks at the group discussion session. Photo: Thanh Duy

Speaking at the discussion, Permanent Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh suggested considering the synchronous construction of 6 lanes according to the design, and not constructing 4 lanes first to ensure synchronization and reduce costs.

In particular, regarding the survey and licensing of mines for construction, based on the reality that many provinces are facing difficulties, the Standing Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee proposed that investors should be allowed to manage exploitation measures to reduce construction costs and unify price management because there is no need to bid and purchase mine materials through intermediaries.

The conversion of land use purposes, including forest land, is also a factor that prolongs the time for granting permits for material mines. Therefore, comrade Le Hong Vinh proposed that for places where key projects and works are planned, there is no need to convert land use purposes, but only to count the area and coordinates to determine that this location does not need to be converted in the future.

Delegate Hoang Thi Thu Hien - Permanent Vice President of Nghe An Provincial Women's Union spoke at the group discussion session. Photo: Thanh Duy

Regarding this content, National Assembly delegate Hoang Thi Thu Hien - Permanent Vice President of the Women's Union of Nghe An province also said that in order to successfully implement phase 2 of the North-South expressway in the East, it is necessary to learn from the implementation experience in phase 1, to prevent related issues to limit arising problems.

Also at the meeting, discussing the draft Resolution on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Can Tho city, National Assembly delegate Vi Van Son - Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee of Nghe An province expressed his agreement with the mechanisms and policies on financial management, State budget, decentralization of State management in the fields of land, planning, income of cadres, civil servants and public employees under the management of the City, preferential policies to support investment for the dredging project combined with product recovery of Dinh An - Can Tho maritime channel and the Center for linking, producing, processing and consuming agricultural products of the Mekong Delta in Can Tho.

Delegate Vi Van Son - Head of the Ethnic Minorities Committee of Nghe An province spoke at the group discussion session. Photo: Thanh Duy

Concluding the discussion session, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An Province Thai Thanh Quy assessed that through the opinions, there was basic agreement on the Government's Submission to the National Assembly on the investment policy for the North-South Expressway Construction Project in the East for the 2021-2025 period.

However, regarding the mechanism to accelerate progress and improve the quality of key national programs in the general economic recovery package, including the North-South expressway construction project in the Eastern phase 2021 - 2025, the designation of construction contractors should be accompanied by a requirement to save about 5% of the estimated value of the bidding package to speed up the bidding process and be able to select good contractors, especially strong contractors.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province concluded the group discussion session. Photo: Thanh Duy

Along with that, the management of material mines serving the project construction should also be assigned to the investor and included in the project estimate to reduce intermediary steps, promoting higher efficiency; at the same time, it is proposed to allow a special mechanism that does not go through the licensing process. Along with that, to speed up the progress, it is proposed that the National Assembly authorize the National Assembly Standing Committee to give opinions on changing the purpose of forest use related to the mine level.

The Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province also proposed decentralizing the investor to all provinces and cities where the route passes through to ensure unity and synchronization; instead of only decentralizing, delegating authority, and allocating capital to the Provincial People's Committees of some localities with capacity, management experience and written proposals to be the competent State agencies to implement the expressway sections/projects in the form of public investment passing through the area.

Also at the discussion session, the Delegation of Nghe An agreed with the content of the draft Resolution on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Can Tho city.