Preliminary design plan of the North-South high-speed railway project. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

In an interview with the press on this content, Politburo member and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh said: The policy of investing in the North-South high-speed railway is supported by all people and is very exciting. People are eagerly waiting and this should have been done a long time ago, because the country's economy has developed, but until now we still have to travel on the railway from decades ago, which is old and outdated.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Politburo recently issued Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private economic development, in which it assessed that the private economy has been and is a leading force in innovation, application of science and technology, improving labor productivity and product quality, and is capable of carrying out important national tasks and projects. Therefore, the State needs to have a mechanism for private enterprises to participate in important projects.

“In fact, many important projects have been assigned to the private sector, such as expressway projects, renewable energy projects, tunneling through mountains or large bridges, etc. That shows that private enterprises can carry out large-scale projects,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that so far, many enterprises have proposed to do the North-South high-speed railway project and certainly many more enterprises will participate. The Government calls for and welcomes businesses to submit applications for high-speed railway projects.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh emphasized that it must be done quickly, considering it as a boost for the economy and cannot be delayed any longer because we cannot continue on the current railway lines. The long-distance country requires us to have a new railway system.

In the context of the country's strong development as it is today, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh affirmed that the North-South high-speed railway must be modern. We are behind, but must approach international standards; at the same time, we must prevent waste, avoid price gouging, take advantage of and shorten the time, and quickly put the project into operation. In addition, we must prevent group interests, negativity, and backdoors when implementing the project.

With many businesses proposing to do this project, the Government welcomes and highly appreciates private businesses, because this is also considered a commitment. The Government thanks businesses and suggests that businesses continue to propose to the Government to participate in the North-South high-speed railway project.

Emphasizing that the recent implementation of a number of urban railway projects may have left us with many valuable lessons to better implement the North-South high-speed railway project, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh said that if we spend nearly 70 billion USD (total investment capital for the North-South high-speed railway) in the near future and only get projects like the urban railway line in two major cities, people will be excited, but it will still not be successful.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh, the most important thing is to have a high-speed railway line to serve the people and serve economic development. At the same time, there must be a railway industry with a team of skilled human resources and engineers to serve railway operations and develop new railway lines because the country's needs are still very large.

“If this project is implemented well, we will have a chain of urban areas from North to South associated with railway projects. Each station is an urban area, accompanied by an ecosystem including cultural centers, tourist areas, industrial parks and accompanying services,” Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh emphasized.

To achieve these goals, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh affirmed that there must be the right approach and steps. Currently, many businesses are interested in this, so the Government has proposed and the National Assembly has added and adjusted other forms of investment so that the private sector can participate. The National Assembly has approved this policy, meaning that the legal corridor is available for us to choose from. Now the highest goal is to consider and evaluate whether public investment is good, public-private partnership is good, or private investment is good.

The requirement is that when building a railway, it must reach international standards. Thus, the design must meet international standards, supervision must be international, and evaluation must also be international, because we really do not have experience, so we must invite experts in.

“We will invite the most modern country to evaluate. Our way of doing things is to “stand on the shoulders of giants”, if we do not know, we will go to learn”, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh emphasized.

Do Binh (VNA)