On the morning of October 16, in Can Tho City, a conference was held to remove difficulties and obstacles and promote the development of transport infrastructure in the Mekong Delta region.
Attending the event were Politburo member, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, leaders of ministries, branches, central agencies and leaders of provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region.
In his opening speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the Government is very interested in developing strategic infrastructure for the whole country in general, and the Mekong Delta region in particular.
The Prime Minister said that the Mekong Delta has many distinct potentials, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages, but there are bottlenecks and limitations, especially in infrastructure, including transport infrastructure.
Limitations in transport infrastructure increase logistics costs, input costs, reduce the competitiveness of goods, do not create new development space, limit economic restructuring, industrialization, modernization, application of science and technology and innovation in this area.
The Prime Minister stated that this conference will continue to be held to assess the implementation of work, point out what has been done well, draw valuable experiences and good lessons to continue doing. At the same time, identify difficulties and obstacles in materials, procedures, capital, site clearance, and field implementation of construction contractors and supervision consultants, thereby promptly resolving them, avoiding delays and prolongation.
The Prime Minister emphasized the spirit of high determination, great effort, drastic action, focus, key points, completing each task, resolving any problems at that stage, saying must be done, committing must be done, clarifying people, tasks, responsibilities, time, products, promoting project implementation, ensuring quality and progress.
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Duy Lam said that the Mekong Delta region is currently implementing 9 important national transport projects, key to the transport sector, with a total investment of about 106,000 billion VND, of which 8/9 projects are under construction. The My An - Cao Lanh Expressway project (Korean ODA capital) with the Ministry of Transport as the managing agency is completing procedures and is expected to start construction in early 2025.
Of the 8 projects currently underway, 6 are scheduled to be completed in 2025, including 4 expressway projects with a total length of 207km, part of the competition plan to complete 3,000km.
Regarding site clearance (GPMB) at the expressway projects being implemented, it has reached over 99%, basically meeting the construction progress, except for the Ho Chi Minh road project which has not met the construction requirements (the section through Kien Giang province has reached 56%, through Bac Lieu province has reached 82%); the Cao Lanh - Lo Te project still has problems with site clearance at Lo Te intersection (through Can Tho city). Although the localities have made many efforts, the GPMB work has not been completed as required by the Prime Minister in September 2024.
Up to now, contractors have mobilized a total of 450 construction teams, 6,500 workers, 2,200 equipment suitable for construction conditions in the Mekong Delta region (the Can Tho - Ca Mau Project alone has mobilized 183 construction teams, 971 equipment, 3,000 workers). However, most of the Projects/Component Projects are behind schedule from 4% to 15% (only Component Project 1 of the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway Project, Rach Mieu 2 Bridge Project, Dai Ngai Bridge Project meet the schedule). The main reason is that the source of sand materials for the projects has not met the requirements.
Regarding the material supply situation (including Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3), Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Duy Lam said that localities have actively reviewed and identified the source of river sand of 72.3 million m3/demand of 65 million m3. Localities have made efforts to implement procedures for granting material mines. However, due to the long time to carry out the procedures and the limited mining capacity of the mines, they have not met the construction requirements.
Regarding sea sand exploitation, at the Hau Giang - Ca Mau Expressway Component Project, contractors have mobilized a total of 18 dredgers and more than 200 barges to exploit and transport sea sand from the mine in Soc Trang province. Up to now, 0.425/total demand of 2.0 million m3 has been brought to the construction site.
At the Ho Chi Minh road project, contractors have completed the mine survey in Kien Giang province, with reserves of about 1 million m3, and are completing mine licensing procedures.
At the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway Component 4 Project, contractors have completed procedures for granting 1.2 million m3 and are completing procedures for handing over the sea area.
Regarding the source of crushed stone aggregate, the Deputy Minister of Transport said that the total demand of the projects is about 8.03 million m3. This is also a big "challenge" for the Mekong Delta region, which needs to be focused on solving according to the motto "one step ahead".
