Hanoi (VNA) - The transport sector is striving to construct around 4,000-5,000km of expressways in the next 10 years, towards forming a national highway system in order to improve connectivity among regions nationwide, said Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.
Affirming that the sector will make breakthroughs in 2020, the Minister said transportation projects will mobilise a lot of investment resources, thus accelerating the construction progress of projects and complete them on schedule.
In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the Lunar New Year (the Year of the Rat), The said in 2019, the transport sector completed tasks assigned by the Party and State, especially those serving national socio-economic development.
Ensuring traffic safety is one of the bright spots of the sector last year. The country recorded positive results in the work, basically meting requirements set in the Government’s Resolution as the number of cases, fatalities and injuries by traffic accidents in 2019 reduced by over 5 percent.
For the basic construction, the sector made a number of remarkable achievements, with key projects such as the Long Thanh international airport and the eastern section of the North-South Highway were implemented on schedule, The said.
[Long Thanh airport will operate by 2025: transport minister]
He also mentioned the slow disbursement for other transport projects, attributing the situation to the delay of land clearance and relevant procedures.
The Ministry of Transport planned to disburse at least 85 percent of the projects’ investment by January 31, 2020, he added.
According to the Minister, tech-based taxi service, traditional taxi companies and contract vehicle service providers will be strictly managed through technology in accordance with regulations in the Government’s Decree 86.
The sanction of administrative violations in the field of transport has showed great progress as journey supervision equipment and cameras have been used in managing and fining violation cases.
Regarding measures to attract more investment for transport projects, The said the ministry proposed the Government and the National Assembly to issue a law on public-private partnership (PPP), which is expected to help create breakthroughs for many fields, including transportation.
The State will issue transparent policies to attract resources for developing transport infrastructures.
The ministry hopes that the law can help mobilise resources, especially domestic resources, and those from enterprises and individuals through capital mobilisation methods such as project bonds and government bonds to modernise the nation’s transport infrastructure.
Attention will be also paid to developing and upgrading nearly 25,000km of national roads, The said, adding that it is more difficult to manage traffic safety on national roads than on expressways.
The sector aims to construct about 4,000-5,000km of expressways in the next decade to basically connect inter-provincial roads, seaports, and border gates, creating a continuous connection serving socio-economic development, and ensuring national security and defence.
The Ministry of Transport is focusing on repairing existing roads, and developing expressways, The noted.
Talking about key tasks for the sector in 2020, The said there will be more advantages for the transport sector in the year.
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The talks the transport sector's target of building about 4,000-5,000km of expressways in the next decade in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the Lunar New Year (the Year of the Rat). (Photo: Viet Hung/VietnamPlus)
According to the minister, the Government is concentrating on making institutional adjustments, considering this as a key task this year. If the work is completed in the first half of 2020, activities of many fields, including the transport sector, will be more convenient.
In 2020, the ministry will give priority to the basic construction work, registering over 35 trillion VND (over 1.5 billion USD) for projects. Every month, the ministry will review the progress, and make capital adjustments to each project based on the construction progress.
The management of basic construction is expected to create great changes, towards maximising the use of distributed capital resources and completing projects as soon as possible.
The ministry has offered consultations to the Prime Minister in early 2020 on selecting investors for the Long Thanh international airport project, one of the major projects of the country. It also joined the investment appraisal and approval process, and coordinated with the southern province of Dong Nai to well perform the land clearance work, with the aim of ensuring that the project’s construction will start in 2021.
It hopes to create breakthroughs in implementing key projects in 2020, especially expressway projects, thus meeting requirements of socio-economic development of the nation, The said./.
