Vietnam's provincial committee rejects $300 million loan from China
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QUANG NINH- Quang Ninh authorities have rejected a US$300 million loan from China for a new expressway project in the province, saying local investors are “fully capable” of doing the job.
In a recent meeting with the press, Quang Ninh Province People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Long said that though authorities were still weighing plans proposed by Vietnamese investors eyeing the Van Don – Mong Cai expressway, he believed a public-private partnership (PPP) project investment was feasible.
“We are working on a final investment plan of which the investors account for 70 per cent of the capital while 30 per cent is from the provincial budget,” Long said.
“The provincial budget will be used for land clearance and some other works,” he said.
Long’s explanation answered where the money would come from to build the expressway after the northern coastal province in late July asked the Prime Minister to give it jurisdiction over the project from the Ministry of Transport (MoT).
The MoT initially proposed using China’s $300 million official development aid (ODA) loan for the project, a proposal that ignited debate within the Government and society.
Many cited the long delayed, over budget Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway project in Hanoi, funded by Chinese ODA, as a reason not to take another loan from China for infrastructure.
In its report to the PM, Quang Ninh People’s Committee also expressed concerns that the expressway might not meet its deadline by 2020 due to the expected slow disbursement of China’s $300 million loan.
“Practically speaking, it would take too long to carry out the Can Don-Mong Cai expressway with the official development aid and it would fail to be finished by 2020 as planned in the master plan approved by the Prime Minister in 2008,” said the report.
Long said that the 96km-long expressway would play a key role in establishing the Vân Don special economic zone (SEZ) and needed to be built as soon as possible.
The Chairman also worried over the conditions with the loan, for example Chinese contractors would have to be hired.
Long’s concerns mirrored what the ministries of Planning and Investment and Finance said previously about a Chinese ODA loan. They both warned that all preferential loans from Beijing come with requirements to hire Chinese contractors and use technology and equipment from China.
The Van Don-Mong Cai expressway project will create a high-speed transport line with one end linked to the Ha Long-Van Don expressway and another to the Bac Luan II bridge in Mong Cai city. The bridge connects to the border city of Dongxing in China’s Guangxi autonomous region.
