HANOI, October 3 (Engineering Daily) -- The World Bank wants to support Vietnam on capital, developing a policy framework to build North-South expressway. This was confirmed by Franz R. Drees-Gross, Director of the WB’s Transport and ICT Global Practice at a meeting in the Ministry of Transport yesterday.
According to Mr. R. Drees-Gross, WB is very interested in information that the Ministry of Transport is implementing investment projects of North-South expressway section Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City with a length of more than 1,300km and total investment expected more than $10 billion. The WB can support this project with an overall package".
The Director of the WB’s Transport and ICT Global Practice said that the cooperation between the two sides is not only a loan but WB also wishes to support Vietnam in terms of technical issues, institutional development, exchange and problem solving faced by the Ministry of Transport, especially in the case of PPP projects.
According to the Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia, the demand for investment in development of transport infrastructure is increasing, while Vietnam has timed out use of preferential loans (IDA) of the WB from 1 July 2017. In the context of the high level of public debt, Vietnam needs to have new and appropriate approaches to the IBRD loan from WB.
"The Ministry of Transport is carrying out many major transportation projects, including North-South expressway, Long Thanh international airport, and North-South high speed railway. Except for railway projects, it is difficult to call for private capital to invest, while the rest of road and air projects, the policy of the Ministry of Transport is to mobilize social resources for investment in the form of PPP. We look forward to WB's support for these projects", said the Ministry of Transport.
On the WB side, Franz R. Drees-Gross said the WB has provided Vietnam with $ 2.8 billion in investment, building rural roads, inland waterways and highways. There are also five cooperative projects with the transportation sector worth about $ 1.5 billion. For new projects, the Ministry of Transport has proposed WB to support with IBRD loans for the development of waterway corridors and logistics in the South (Total investment: $ 300 million, IBRD loan of the WB: $ 250 million) and some potential projects such as North - South expressway section Dau Giay - Phan Thiet and projects on upgrading the existing North-South railway infrastructure.
