Revealing the reason why China continuously wins bids in Vietnam

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has just listed a series of reasons why China continuously wins bids for trillion-dollar mega projects in Vietnam.

Recently, there have been many opinions reflecting that Chinese contractors have continuously been awarded important projects in Vietnam, although the quality is not guaranteed. The opinions suggest reviewing and evaluating the quality and effectiveness of projects won by China, including loans from China to avoid dependence on the economy of this country.

Responding to this issue, the Ministry of Planning and Investment admitted that it is true that many Chinese contractors have won bids for important projects in Vietnam. During the implementation process, a number of situations have arisen, such as: slow construction progress; low quality of goods and works after completion, rapid deterioration after the warranty period expires...

The Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated railway project using Chinese loans and contractors is behind schedule and over budget. Photo: L.Bang

The Ministry of Planning and Investment also listed a series of main reasons leading to Chinese contractors winning the bid.

One is to use Chinese loans. To borrow Chinese loans, Vietnam must accept Chinese contractors to carry out the bidding package as a loan condition.

"This is the main reason why Chinese contractors win many bids in Vietnam," the Ministry of Planning and Investment affirmed.

Second, the quality of project preparation and approval is still low, and the technology, volume and total investment of the project have not been determined relatively accurately, leading to additional volume during implementation.

Third, the approval of low total investment resulted in contractors offering advanced technology from developed countries failing to win the bid due to exceeding the total investment.

Fourth, the quality of bidding documents prepared by investors is still weak, and technical barriers have not been set up to eliminate Chinese contractors.

To overcome this situation, it is necessary to first be self-sufficient in financial resources, attract private and foreign investment capital; increase public-private partnership (PPP) projects; improve the quality of project preparation, approval, and bidding to select contractors to implement the project.

In addition, many opinions reflect that Chinese contractors won bids for key projects in our country but implemented them slowly, performed poor quality construction, causing waste and frustration among the people (such as the My Dinh National Stadium project, the Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated railway,...).

Opinions suggest strict and drastic measures to overcome the above situation.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment said: The Law on Bidding does not stipulate the selection of bids based on low prices, but only stipulates that bidders who have been evaluated to meet technical requirements will be considered and their evaluation prices will be determined. The bidder who meets technical requirements and has the lowest evaluation price will be considered and recommended to win the bid.

However, due to limitations in capacity and experience, in the bidding documents, Vietnamese investors have not yet proposed technical barriers to eliminate low-quality goods; have not yet proposed a suitable formula for determining evaluation prices to select capable contractors with good techniques.

In order to limit and gradually overcome the situation of Chinese contractors winning bids, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the measure that needs to be taken is "Vietnam must be self-sufficient in capital, avoiding borrowing too much capital from China".

In addition, according to this Ministry, competent persons and investors must raise awareness, responsibility and capacity in organizing and approving projects, especially projects/bidding packages that must be organized for international bidding, in which the total investment of the project must be consistent with the technology and origin of the desired goods and equipment;

Investors must improve their capacity, ethics and responsibility when performing their duties to ensure compliance with the provisions of the law on bidding, contributing to the selection of contractors that meet the requirements.

“In particular, it is necessary to stipulate the content of the assessment of the contractor's reputation in performing previous contracts. Accordingly, in case a participating contractor has a history of not completing the contract, it will be assessed as not ensuring reputation and the contractor's bidding documents will be rejected,” the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposed.

According to Vietnamnet.vn