HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Transport needs to focus on its restructuring, adjusting planning schemes and strategies with detailed implementation roadmaps and ensuring traffic safety in 2017.
Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng made the suggestion at a conference hosted by the ministry in Hà Nội on Tuesday to review the implementation of tasks in 2016 and deploy missions in 2017.
Dũng said the ministry must accelerate the building of the North-South expressway project to submit to the National Assembly for consideration at its session in May.
The ministry also needs to speed up the mapping out of an investment plan for Long Thành international airport and a pre-feasibility study for the express railway project to submit to the NA in 2018, along with mobilising resources to build seaports, upgrade waterway infrastructure and build railways linking to industrial parks in order to reduce road and air overloading.
The Deputy PM highlighted the sector’s achievements in administrative reform, investment allocation, transport development and traffic safety.
The ministry worked with other relevant ministries and sectors to accelerate its infrastructure projects, including those using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) form.
The sector restructuring was speeded up, with the focus on public investment, enterprises and transport. It saw a surge in transport production, exceeding 1.27 billion tonnes of cargo and 3.62 billion passengers, up 10.6 percent and 9.6 percent from 2015, respectively; exceeding its yearly target by 7-8 percent.
By the end of December, VNĐ3.68 trillion (US$2.8 billion) was disbursed, or 82.6 percent of its target. The figure is expected to exceed VNĐ69 trillion by the end of January 2017, making up of 90.4 per cent.
At the conference, Minister of Transport Trương Quang Nghĩa requested all units to embark on their tasks right from the beginning of 2017, with focus placed on strengthening their roles in State management, completing legal frameworks in combination with the inspection work to ensure effective implementation of the working agendas of the government and the ministry.
In 2017, the management of projects will be strengthened to ensure their schedules and efficiency of investment capital, Nghia said, adding that more efforts are needed to speed up the disbursement of the remained investment for key projects.    
The ministry needs to prioritise urgent and regional connectivity projects while completing the pre-feasibility study on the north-south express railway to submit to the NA for approval, Nghĩa added.
According to the ministry’s report, in 2017, the sector aims at a year-on-year growth of 8-9 per cent in cargo and passenger transport, and over 10 per cent in the railway sector. An estimated VNĐ51.61 trillion is expected to be disbursed during the year. — VNS