The goal of completing 3000 km of expressway by the end of 2025 in response to the emulation movement in Vietnam

The goal of completing 3000 km of expressway by the end of 2025 in response to the emulation movement in Vietnam (Picture from the Internet)

The goal of completing 3000 km of expressway by the end of 2025 in response to the emulation movement in Vietnam

On August 18, 2024, Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh, Chairman of the Central Emulation and Reward Council, launched the Emulation Movement “500 Days and Nights of Emulation to Complete 3000 km of Expressway.” This movement holds very practical significance to strive for the successful completion of the Resolution of the XIII Party Congress and to celebrate the Party Congresses at all levels, leading to the XIV National Congress of the Communist Party.

The time from now until the end of 2025 is not much (about 16 months), while the amount of work needing to be addressed and organized is enormous, requiring ministries, central authorities, and local authorities to be genuinely active, strive, and put effort into participating in the emulation movement practically and effectively. Responding to the emulation movement, in Official Dispatch 673/TTg-CN dated September 5, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam Tran Hong Ha requested units implement several important tasks as follows:

(1) General tasks

Ministries, committees, central and local authorities, based on their functions, tasks, powers, and authority, must genuinely work with great responsibility to perform the tasks assigned related to expressway construction investment projects. Focus intensively on projects scheduled for completion by the end of 2025 to ensure the national goal of having 3000 km of expressway. This should be considered a central and paramount political task to be executed decisively, effectively, and with results, maintaining consistent spirit: understanding must be clear, determination must be high, efforts must be great, actions must be decisive, focused, with priorities set, and tasks completed thoroughly. Assign clear responsibilities, leading implementing agencies, deadlines, progress, and specific results. Regularly check, urge, remove difficulties and obstacles, especially in land clearance, relocation of technical infrastructure, constructing resettlement areas, providing building materials for projects. In all cases of difficulty and obstacles, forces involved in projects should coordinate closely to resolve issues quickly, ensuring project progress and quality, all for the common goal, for the shared interests of the nation.

Ministries, central authorities, local authorities, project management boards, contractors, agencies, and units must learn from the lessons and practical implementation of previous expressway projects. Based on the specific conditions of each project, they need to develop an overall plan, detail plan (clearly assigning people, tasks, responsibilities, products, and completion progress), especially for technically complex items/projects such as large bridges, tunnels, foundation treatments. Focus on directing implementation; create and promulgate suitable emulation criteria, focusing on difficult and central tasks. Periodically every month, contractors and project management boards report to the governing agency for consolidation by the Ministry of Transport, reporting at regular meetings of the State Steering Committee for key national projects and transport sector focal projects.

(2) Specific tasks

- The Ministry of Transport, as the standing agency of the State Steering Committee for key national projects in the transport sector, should further promote proactive monitoring, understanding the situation, coordinating with the Office of the Government of Vietnam to urge assigned tasks, promptly consolidate, report to competent authorities to resolve difficulties and obstacles, ensure progress, quality, safety, and efficiency.

- The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment must urgently balance and allocate funds promptly in accordance with their functions and duties to ensure project progress.

- The State Bank of Vietnam should direct credit institutions to arrange funding according to credit agreements for investors in PPP (public-private partnership) projects, ensuring project progress.

- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment should perform the function of state management in natural resources, promptly guide localities to expedite procedures to ensure the supply of construction materials, such as soil, rock, sand, and gravel for construction works.

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should proactively understand, remove obstacles, and guide localities in converting forest land use, ensuring disaster prevention requirements, and coping with climate change in accordance with the law.

- The Ministry of Construction should organize inspections, urge localities to fully publish construction material prices closely aligned with market fluctuations; check, guide, and remove difficulties related to project management, cost management, construction norms, and construction contracts; promptly organize inspections of construction work acceptance for projects, meeting progress requirements.

- The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Committee for Management of State Capital at Enterprises should direct Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to effectively relocate high-voltage power lines to meet project implementation progress.

- The Ministry of Public Security and the Government Inspectorate should perform well in inspection, anti-corruption, anti-negative, anti-waste, and anti-collusion in bidding and contract purchases as per their functions, duties, and authority.

- The Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security should ensure political stability, social order, and safety, supporting project implementations within their authority.

- The Ministry of Home Affairs should monitor, inspect, and urge effective and substantive emulation movements to avoid formality. Organize a preliminary review of the emulation movement in December 2024; the second phase in June 2025, and conclude the emulation movement at the end of December 2025.

- Provinces and cities with expressway projects being implemented, with material mines supplying the projects: Need to mobilize the entire political system under the Communist Party's leadership, the management of all government levels; promote the role of leaders, propagate, mobilize, accelerate land clearance, relocate technical infrastructure, especially invest in constructing resettlement areas to ensure people have new homes that are at least as good as or better than the old ones; cooperate with investors and contractors in promoting, mobilizing, and supporting to create jobs and livelihoods for local people, fostering excitement and close ties with the populace. Localities with material sources, especially in the southern region, must be more urgent and active in expediting procedures for mining licenses, increasing capacity, ensuring mining capacity to meet project progress, and proactively supporting localities lacking supply materials.

- Investors, project management boards, contractors: Should elevate their sense of responsibility, apply scientific advancements, technical improvements, maximize the use of machinery, organize reasonable construction continuously “3 shifts 4 squads”, “through holidays, through Tet, through days off.” Simultaneously, improve construction quality, ensure technical, aesthetic, environmental hygiene, labor safety, creating a clean and beautiful development space for the project upon completion; proactively cooperate with localities to resolve related difficulties and obstacles.

- Press and media agencies should continue to carry out effective propaganda, highlight good people and good deeds on construction sites, typical advanced examples, effective, innovative ways; communication should be objective, truthful, reflecting the actual situation and results achieved by the localities and projects.

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