From "if" thinking to strategic trust in the private sector
The North-South high-speed railway line is identified as an infrastructure project of top strategic significance, with a "backbone" in regional connectivity and creating a foundation for long-term development.
With an investment scale of up to tens of billions of USD, over the years, the default capital option has been public investment or public-private partnership (PPP). Therefore, when VinSpeed - a business in the Vingroup ecosystem - proposed to invest directly in the entire route, public opinion raised a series of questions: Should we assign a national project to a private enterprise? Will it create an unfair precedent? And if risks occur, who is responsible?
From a legal perspective, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc - Director of ANVI Law Firm - affirmed that the law does not prohibit private enterprises from investing in key national projects. The problem is not the regulation, but the management thinking is still reserved.
The National Assembly issued Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 dated May 17, 2025 on Some special mechanisms and policies for private economic development, in which Article 14 stipulates the placement of orders, appointment of bids or other appropriate forms for the private economy to carry out important national projects such as high-speed railways - lawyer Duc added.
Not only stop at the legal framework, the story is also an effective problem. Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong - XV Session XV, former Vice Rector of the National Economic University - said that if Vinspeed made project investment with a self -arranged capital with an interestless loan and a commitment to repay for 35 years for the State, it was a "more efficient budget" plan. According to him, this is only the support of the State to help private enterprises replace the state. The State should have invested but there are private enterprises ready to stand out to undertake, this is very necessary to encourage.
Agreeing, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute - said that this is the time to resolutely overcome the fear of "failure". He warned: "If we continue to maintain the national project mindset, only the State will do it, Vietnam will never have a breakthrough".
reality has proven that many public investment projects have been delayed for decades, causing waste and missing the development pace. Meanwhile, the private sector, if empowered and facilitated, can do it faster, more effectively and still ensure public interest constraints.
Encourage the private sector to think big, need a mechanism to allow them to do big
The North-South high-speed railway project, if implemented properly, will not stop at traffic goals.
Experts say that this is a lever to form a new, breakthrough complex industrial ecosystem, from mechanical engineering, new materials, automation technology to construction, logistics, and development of satellite-compressed urban areas.
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien commented: "This is an opportunity for the industry to reach a new level, raising the level of national capacity". He emphasized that if VinSpeed is assigned to do so, it will not only help remove infrastructure bottlenecks but also contribute to promoting the localization process, when businesses commit to using technology transferred for production in Vietnam, creating a railway industry dominated by Vietnamese people.
In addition, Vingroup's ecosystem advantage with its many years of reputation for implementation and operation capabilities is also considered by experts to be a solid foundation to help VinSpeed implement the project by integrating total resources, from infrastructure to exploiting the railway station economy, urban development and system operation.
More importantly, according to experts, the spirit of Resolution 68 is to encourage private enterprises to think big. To do so, first of all, there must be a mechanism that allows them to do great. And in order to have that mechanism, it is necessary to trust in the private business block, not doubt, tighten, or fear of "breaking the rules".
Vietnam does not lack successful lessons when private enterprises are assigned big tasks, from building airports, seaports, to high-tech industrial parks.
The North-South high-speed railway, if given to the right people and right jobs with an open mindset and in the spirit of "completely eliminating awareness, ideology, concept, and prejudice towards the private economy of Vietnam" as stated in Resolution 68, may become a "second Korean milestone", as the Government of this country once put its strategic trust in Hyundai in exchange for the economic miracle of the Han River.
Of course, the State cannot be lax. But instead of "holding" everything, the State needs to play the role of institution-making, being a strict manager, supervising the rules of the game and ensuring that all commitments are implemented.
If that can be done, the North-South high-speed railway in particular and the high-speed railway industry in general will not be just transportation routes. These will be "new railways" for the country's development thinking, helping Vietnam enter a new era of growth, where the private economy is truly the most important driving force of the national economy.
