Hanoi (VNA) –꧑ The government will focus more on transport infrastructure, especially expressways, to spur socioeconomic development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at a conference in Hanoi on January 13.

Addressing the conference of the Ministry of Transport to review its work last year, the government leader stressed that all provinces must have expressways. He asked the ministry to identify difficulties, prepare resources and make greater efforts to reap better achievements than in 2022.

National interests first  

The sector should work to remove obstacles regarding legal issues to build-operate-transfer (BOT) and BT projects, with public investment driving private one, and all social resources utilised, he said. The PM also pointed out that digital transformation by the ministry remains sluggish, and the bidding for the Long Thanh airport project in the southern province of Dong Nai has been delayed. Regarding investment in projects, he emphasised that national interests should be put first, asking the ministry to change its mindset, invite international contractors, and step up supervision, especially in bidding and construction. The project management boards need to review, limit sale by tender and project subdivisions, and prevent corruption and other negative phenomena, the leader continued. For the registration work, he said the ministry should review auto registration as people have to line up overnight for the process. The ministry was also asked to re-check the bidding for large projects, control their progress and quality, and resolutely handle violators, while revamping transportation activities. The PM also urged better performance in coordinating take-off and landing activities at airports, which, he said, still remains unfair.

No pending work 

Mentioning orientations and tasks for the sector, the PM noted that in 2023, the global situation is predicted to remain challenging. Therefore, the ministry must be more determined and make greater efforts to complete its tasks and achieve better results than in 2022. "The ministry must proactively identify difficulties, prepare resources, closely follow the resolutions of the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government, and implement the Resolutions adopted at the 13th Party Congress to achieve the goal of having 3,000 kilometers of expressways by 2025," he said. The leader said the approved projects must be rolled out quickly, and stressed the need to continue reviewing, building and perfecting institutions, and intensifying decentralisation. He suggested the ministry consider projects connecting Vietnam to its neighbours of China, Laos and Cambodia, and a high-speed railway project from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City with a speed of 200km/h, and propose public-private partnership (PPP) projects.   On this occasion, ministries, agencies and localities were urged to work more closely with the Transport Ministry to deal with issues under their watch, toward fulfilling goals set in the Resolution adopted by the 13th National Party Congress. Last year, the sector completed and put into operation 22 projects, many of them very important to national construction. As of December 31, it disbursed over 47.9 trillion VND (2 billion USD), or 87% of the plan, higher than the country’s average of over 75%. This year, the ministry will strive to embark on 23 projects, finish 29, disburse over 94 trillion VND, or at least 90% of the plan assigned by the PM. According to the ministry, the country currently has 1,163km of expressways. Some 916km are expected to be completed by 2023, bringing the total length to 2,079km. That figure should grow to 3,000km and 5,000km by 2025 and 2030, respectively./.