May 10, 2012

Vietnam - PPP mechanism implementation goes slowly, weakly


VietNamNet Bridge – There have been too many barriers that prevent PPP (public private partnership) from getting more popular in Vietnam. No considerable progress has been made since the day the first project under the PPP mode kicked off in Vietnam.

The project on the Ha Long – Hai Phong highway is one of the three projects chosen for the program on implementing the PPP mechanism in a trial basis. Seeing this as a good project which has high capital recover capability and high feasibility, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, even offered the support of 4-5 million dollars.

However, after the project was chosen for the program, the Quang Ninh provincial authorities unexpectedly signed a memorandum of understanding with the alliance of the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and the Ha Long Production Development and Investment Company (BIM) on the implementation of the project of BOT and BT (build – operation – transfer).

The alliance has chosen Japanese SE as the main contractor of the Bach Dang Bridge, the key component of the project which would play an important role to ensure the smooth operation of the highway.

The Quang Ninh provincial authorities have not made its voice about the reason behind its decision. However, an official of the local planning and investment department said the department itself got surprised about the decision.

In fact, every one understands that it would take less time to implement the project under the mode of BOT with the Japanese investor. “We need to fulfill the highway soon, while we will have to wait very long if we follow PPP mechanism,” he said.

With the legal framework still uncompleted, while the proposals by local authorities unclear, it’s understandable why PPP projects are making no headway.

In fact, long time of project implementation has been anticipated by investors. Though the government urged to follow the PPP mode some years ago, and the Prime Minister also issued a document guiding the implementation of PPP mechanism in late 2010 already, no considerable progress has been made.

Especially, the Dau Giay-Phan Thiet Highway project, the first project chosen for PPP, has not kicked off yet.

“There are six steps a PPP project needs to take. The first step is making strategic analysis. And we are still are the very beginning,” commented Nguyen Dang Truong, Deputy Director of the Bidding Management Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Dang Xuan Quang, Deputy Head of the Foreign Investment Agency, Head of the PPP Teamwork, has also confirmed that the PPP implementation in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No 71 has been going very slowly.

In principle, local authorities and relevant branches would suggest the projects for PPP to the ministry which would then report to the government for final decision. To date, 30 projects have been suggested with the total investment capital of 20 billion dollars. However, as Quang said, it’s very difficult to choose some of them.

“The problem is that local authorities and branches have not suggested the commercial projects attractive enough to investors. Meanwhile, PPP is not a magic which can turn any projects into good projects,” Quang said.

He went on to say that the projects also cannot meet the requirements of the PPP regulation, which means they should not be submitted to the Prime Minister.

However, finally, the PPP teamwork has chosen three projects, namely the Ha Long – Hai Phong Highway, the Song Hau 1 water project and the Nguyet Vien – Thanh Hoa Bridge.

However, Quang Ninh finally gave up the highway project.

Source: TBKTSG



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