Vehicles run on the HCM City-Trung Lương highway. The developer will gain toll collection rights at the highway section for four years and 11 months. — VNA/VNS Phôt Hoàng Hải

HCM CITY (VNS) — Việt Nam is expected to attract a number of investors of transport infrastructure projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) model this year.

The Mỹ Thuận-Cần Thơ expressway project in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta is one of the top of prospective PPP transport infrastructure projects in the number of interested and registered investors.

Nguyễn Danh Huy, chief of the Ministry of Transport’s PPP Committee, said the 23.6 kilometre-long, four-lane highway that connects Tây Đô (former Western City), at a cost of VNĐ6.62 trillion (US$296.1 million), has secured interest from nine local and international investor groups.

The groups are now waiting for approval from the Government.

These include several large investors and investor consortiums like Sovico-Imico-Pacific-Cienco 5; Thái Sơn (under  the Ministry of Defense)-Yên Khánh-Cienco 1; Fecon-Coteccons; Infrastructure Development and Energy Investment JSC-IL&FS (India); Long Thành Golf JSC, Cửu Long Corporation, and Bạch Đằng Corporation.

In addition to having the rights for toll collection for the stipulated period of 20 years and 11 months along the expressway, the developer will also gain toll collection rights at the HCM City-Trung Lương highway section for four years and 11 months starting in 2030.

Vũ Xuân Hòa, director of the Thăng Long Project Management Unit that represents the MoT on project oversight, said with such support, Mỹ Thuận-Cần Thơ expressway was the first highway project to be implemented under the PPP model with indirect state capital participation.

The MoT is set to complete the investor selection process and the signing of the investment agreement in the third quarter of this year.

If many investors pass the pre-qualifying round, there will be a bidding process, which will be completed before the end of this year’s fourth quarter.

Another PPP highway project attracting investors’ attention is the building of Ring Road No. 3’s Tân Vạn-Nhơn Trạch elevated highway section in the southern province of Đồng Nai (first phase).

The 17.84km-long, four-lane route will consist of two phases, 1A (VNĐ5.33 trillion) and 1B ($4.4 trillion) under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.

The project has received investment proposals from a number of investors, including the CIPM-Phú Thọ Infrastructure Construction Limited consortium, Licogi Corporation, the KEC-KUMHO consortium (South Korea), and Samsung Everland.

Nguyễn Danh Huy, chief of the Ministry of Transport’s PPP Committee, said the project’s consultant unit expected to get overall approval from the authorised ministry last month, paving the way to start the prequalifying stage and hold the bidding process to select investors between now and the end of 2016.

The highway projects are on the list of 23 large-scale transport infrastructure projects to source investment capital outside of the state budget under the PPP and build-transfer (BT) models.

Of the total price tag of around VNĐ39.9 trillion ($1.78 billion), VNĐ39.4 trillion ($1.76 billion) will be investors’equity.

All these 23 projects are expected to break ground or will complete investor selection within this year.

Although these 23 projects have received investor proposals, the projects are still open to any investor with feasible investment plans, Huy noted.

Nguyễn Hồng Trường, deputy minister of transport, said the minister would only consider investors with high capacity and reject weak investors.

The PPP committee also needs to propose policies to speed up implementation of PPP projects, he added. — VNS