Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Le Minh Hung has directed the construction sector to prioritise developing a synchronised and modern infrastructure system, and accelerating urbanisation, urban development, and regional connectivity, calling them key pillars for sustaining high economic growth in the coming years.
Chairing a meeting on April 29 to review the Ministry of Construction’s performance since early 2026 and outline priorities ahead, the PM acknowledged the agency’s strong efforts in handling a heavy workload under tight deadlines, while commending its marked achievements, particularly in transport infrastructure development, and urban planning and management.
Reaffirming strategic directions set out in the resolution of the 14th National Party Congress and Conclusion No. 18-KL/TW of the Party Central Committee’s 2nd plenum, the PM stressed that the construction sector must focus on building a modern, concerted infrastructure system while promoting urbanisation and regional linkages. Specific targets include achieving an average annual growth rate of 12.3% for the industry–construction sector, completing over 5,000 km of expressways, and adding 645 km of railway lines, including 200 km of urban rail, by 2030. These goals must align with the objective of achieving double-digit economic growth during 2026–2030 despite current challenges.
To meet these targets, he urged the ministry to urgently finalise and implement action plans aligned with national strategies, assigning clear responsibilities, timelines, and measurable outcomes to relevant units.
Leadership accountability and continuous oversight must be strengthened to ensure efficiency and quality, he said.
The Government leader called for breakthroughs to remove bottlenecks and unlock development resources, including the swift revision of key laws such as the Housing Law and the Real Estate Business Law. He stressed that administrative procedures, business conditions, and compliance costs must be substantially reduced, alongside stronger decentralisation paired with effective supervision.
Regarding planning management, urban development, housing development, and the real estate market, he requested urgently pushing for comprehensive adjustments to national urban and rural planning, ensuring alignment with a streamlined two-tier local governance model, towards raising the urbanisation rate above 50% by 2030 while ensuring modern, science-based urban classification and management.
The PM also demanded a focus on developing social housing and affordable commercial housing, targeting the completion of one million social housing units before 2030. He noted that legal obstacles and stalled projects must be resolved to unlock land and investment resources, while ensuring transparency and proper beneficiary targeting.
On infrastructure financing, the PM stressed the need for the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Finance to study and boldly propose breakthrough mechanisms to attract domestic and foreign social resources for infrastructure investment, especially in transport, including considering the issuance of government bonds tied to specific projects and allowing foreign investors and institutions to hold them for long terms of 15 to 30 years.
Priority must be given to expressway expansion, ongoing large-scale projects, and major railway initiatives such as the North–South high-speed railway, the Lao Cai–Hanoi–Hai Phong and Hanoi–Dong Dang railway routes, and urban rail networks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, he said.
The leader stressed the need to ensure the timely completion and operation of key airports such as the Long Thanh and Gia Binh, along with other aviation projects, as well as seaports and inland waterways.
Regarding transport management and logistics services, the PM underlined the importance of prioritising measures to reduce logistics costs, which remain high relative to GDP, in order to improve national competitiveness./.
