Transport sector urged to speed up restructuring

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung made the suggestion at a conference hosted by the ministry in Hanoi on January 10 to review the implementation of tasks in 2016 and deploy missions in 2017.

Dung said the ministry must accelerate the building of the North-South expressway project to submit to the National Assembly for consideration at its session in May.

The ministry also needs to speed up the mapping out of an investment plan for Long Thanh international airport and a pre-feasibility study for the express railway project to submit to the NA in 2018, along with mobilising resources to build seaports, upgrade waterway infrastructure and build railways linking to industrial parks in order to reduce road and air overloading.

The Deputy PM highlighted the sector’s achievements in administrative reform, investment allocation, transport development and traffic safety.

The ministry worked with other relevant ministries and sectors to accelerate its infrastructure projects, including those using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form.

The sector restructuring was speeded up, with focus on public investment, enterprises and transport. It saw a surge in transport production, exceeding 1.27 billion tonnes of cargo and 3.62 billion passengers, up 10.6% and 9.6% from 2015, respectively; exceeding its yearly target by 7-8%.

By the end of December, 63.68 trillion VND (2.8 billion USD) was disbursed, or 82.6% of its target. The figure is expected to exceed VND69 trillion (US$3.04 billion) by the end of January 2017, making up of 90.4%.

At the conference, Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia requested all units to embark on their tasks right from the beginning of 2017, with focus placed on strengthening their roles in State management, completing legal frameworks in combination with the inspection work to ensure effective implementation of the working agendas of the government and the ministry.

In 2017, the management of projects will be strengthened to ensure their schedules and efficiency of investment capital, Nghia said, adding that more efforts are needed to speed up the disbursement of the remained investment for key projects.     

The ministry needs to prioritise urgent and regional connectivity projects while completing the pre-feasibility study on the north-south express railway to submit to the NA for approval, Nghia added.

According to the ministry’s report, in 2017, the sector aims at year-on-year growth of 8-9% in cargo and passenger transport, and over 10% in the railway sector. An estimated VND51.61 trillion (US$2.27 billion) is expected to be disbursed during the year.