VietNamNet Bridge – Most Vietnamese IT firms say they would not
be foolish enough to get involved in the projects under the mode of private
public partnership (PPP) until the legal framework on PPP is set up.
According to Do Cao Bao,
President of FPT IS, it will take businesses at least 20 years to make profit
with a PPP project. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the policies, tax rates or regulations
would be amended once every five years, which would spoil the implementation of
the projects and push businesses against the wall.
The project on identity card
issuance and management, for example, was thought as an easy job for IT firms.
The enterprises would have to spend money to build the system, while they would
have the right to collect services fees from those who want to get new identity
cards or have cards renewed.
It is estimated that there are 50
million Vietnamese people aged 14 and higher. Supposed that the identity card
issuance fee is five dollars, the total sum of money the service provider can
earn would be up to $250 million. If deducting the initial spending of $160
million and the bank loans interest rates, enterprises would still pocket a
relatively big sum of money.
However, enterprises would have
to anticipate the possible changes in the policies which may hinder their
business. Most recently, the management agencies unexpectedly decided that the
identity cards must show the names of parents. Later, facing the strong
opposition from the public, the State decided to reconsider the decision.
If some businesses which joined
the PPP project, had invested $30 million to develop the management system,
they would have to wait 1-3 years for the final decision, during which they
built system may “die”. If so, they would have lose the money spent on the
system.
In fact, a lot of transport
companies have suffered form the PPP mechanism. Some enterprises joined the
projects to build highways under the mode of PPP, believing that they would
earn money by collecting fees from the vehicles to go on the highways.
However, the Ministry of
Transport then unexpectedly suggested collecting road toll on every vehicle.
The suggestion was not applauded by people. They proposed to remove this kind
of fee, and the proposal has just been approved.
“The investors have been in the
danger, because they cannot earn money by collecting fee. The best solution in
this case is that they sell the works to the State. However, no one can say for
sure if the State would buy the projects, and at what prices it would buy,” Bao
said.
Tong Viet Trung, Deputy General
Director of the military telecom group Viettel, also said that he can see high
risks in implementing PPP projects.
Viettel, for example, once
planned to implement a PPP project on building up a system to manage the arrival
and departure of ships and the volume of goods shipped. However, when it tried
to learn more about the information technology application in the business
field, it found out that some similar projects were implemented before already.
These included a project
developed by the Ministry of Transport, another by the General Department of
Customs, and one more by shipping agents. Meanwhile, the three projects are
incompatible which cannot be integrated. Trung said that it is necessary to
have an overall plan to ensure the smooth operation and connection of component
projects, or it would be impossible to run PPP projects.
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