Adding resources to develop the national expressway system
On the afternoon of February 17, authorized by the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang presented a Report on the investment plan to supplement charter capital for the period 2024-2026 of the parent company - Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC).
According to Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, of the VND38,251 billion of charter capital expected to be supplemented for VEC, there is about VND1,562 billion from the Enterprise Development Investment Fund recorded in the investment project to form assets for production and business.
The remaining VND 36,690 billion from the State budget has been disbursed to invest in 5 expressway projects invested by VEC (including VND 10,062 billion in counterpart capital from the budget; VND 24,127 billion in ODA capital in projects implemented in the form of transferring loans back to the budget and VND 2,500 billion in budget allocation for the Noi Bai - Lao Cai and Cau Gie - Ninh Binh projects).
Regarding the legal basis, Mr. Thang said that the investment of additional charter capital for enterprises with 100% state capital is regulated in the law on management and use of state capital invested in production and business at enterprises.
In practice, VEC is assigned the task of investing, developing, managing and maintaining the national expressway system, being the investor of 5 expressway projects with a total length of 540km, with a total investment of 108,865 billion VND.
Of which, about VND 1,562 billion from the Enterprise Development Investment Fund is recorded in the investment project to form assets for production and business.
To date, VEC has completed investment and put into use 4/5 projects with a total length of 490km, accounting for about 27% of the total length of expressways in Vietnam today.
With a charter capital of VND1,115.13 billion, while the total investment in VEC's expressway projects is very large. Therefore, VEC always faces difficulties when it does not ensure the debt/equity ratio according to current law" - Mr. Thang informed.
According to the Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2035, VEC needs to mobilize large capital to invest in new expressways and expand projects under management (2021-2025 period requires about VND 14,890 billion; 2026-2030 period requires about VND 30,500 billion).
In addition, the progress of implementing and completing the Projects according to the instructions of competent authorities is very urgent. After receiving additional charter capital, VEC will be eligible to mobilize capital from credit institutions to carry out project investment. From the above contents, investing in additional charter capital for VEC is necessary and urgent.
sufficient legal basis and practical basis to supplement capital
Mr. Le Quang Manh - Member of the National Assembly Standing Committee said that when reviewing, the majority of opinions of the Standing Committee of the Finance and Budget Committee agreed to increase charter capital for VEC in the 2024-2026 period, to increase the financial capacity of this enterprise in developing expressway projects.
With the Government's proposal, Mr. Manh said that the competent authority has concluded agreeing with the market owner to allow the use of public investment capital assigned to the Ministry of Transport to invest in the project. This includes counterpart funds from the State budget, ODA in projects implemented in the form of transferring loans to re-lending to budget issuance and budget issuance capital for projects to convert to additional budget capital for VEC.
However, the inspection agency requested the Government to direct the agencies to calculate, determine accurately and take responsibility for the data when implementing this policy.
This is to ensure effective capital use, no loss of capital and State assets, as well as handle issues related to management, accounting, preservation and development plans when adding charter capital to VEC.
The State Audit, within the scope of its tasks and powers, conducts an audit of compliance with regulations on increasing charter capital as well as management and use of capital of parent company - VEC according to the provisions of the State Audit Law, and reports to the National Assembly at the October session, expected in October 2025.
