Prime Minister: Vietnam must proactively allocate capital for the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway

On September 29, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a meeting of the Government Standing Committee to listen to a report on the results of the first session of the Vietnam-China Joint Railway Cooperation Committee.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the meeting - Photo: VGP

According to the National Assembly's resolution, the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway project, about 419km long with a total capital of VND203,231 billion, equivalent to USD8.37 billion, will start construction in 2025 and strive to be completed in 2030.

The Prime Minister has requested the groundbreaking of some construction items of the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway project on December 19.

Assign specific tasks to ministries and branches

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested relevant agencies to continue implementing high-level agreements as well as the achieved contents. The spirit is high determination, great effort, drastic action, doing each task properly, completing each task, ensuring synchronization and comprehensiveness.

The Prime Minister emphasized the spirit of autonomy, positivity, initiative, doing what can be done immediately and continuing to closely coordinate with the Chinese side, persistently exchanging to achieve the goal; ministries and branches must proactively deploy work according to their functions, tasks, and powers and cooperate synchronously and closely with each other. If they encounter difficulties or problems beyond their authority, they must immediately propose them.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Construction urgently implement, appraise, and promulgate regulations and standards for high-speed railways and the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway in accordance with the processes, procedures, authority, and provisions of law and international regulations, to be completed in October 2025.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to promote high-level activities to facilitate the implementation of connectivity projects with China.

The Ministry of Finance shall preside over and work with relevant agencies to review and calculate capital arrangement plans, including proactively mobilizing Vietnam's capital sources and studying and proposing the most effective loan plan; at the same time, continue to work specifically with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on the possibility of borrowing capital for the project; urgently report to the Government Standing Committee on specific plans in October.

The Prime Minister requested to urgently increase human resources and strengthen the management boards of railway projects of the Ministry of Construction; the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong Railway Project Management Board continues to promote project implementation as soon as possible with the spirit of learning while working, gaining experience, and being most proactive in implementing tasks, especially those that can be done by themselves.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh - Photo: VGP

Cooperation in developing railway industry

The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Construction and relevant agencies to develop a master plan on the critical path, site clearance, and component projects. In particular, for component project 1 (investment in infrastructure connecting stations on the route and station square, using domestic capital), it is necessary to complete and approve the feasibility study report in October 2025.

Complete technical design of construction items before November 6; complete selection of construction contractor and supervision consultant before December 5; complete site clearance and mine clearance within the construction area before December 19.

For component project 2 (investment in railway construction, using domestic capital and loans), it is necessary to urgently prepare a feasibility study report, to be completed by June 2026 at the latest; the appraisal and approval of the report must also be carried out urgently.

Regarding the agreement on connecting standard gauge railways between the two countries, the Prime Minister directed to unify the documents and technical plans in September 2025.

Regarding cooperation in developing the railway industry, the Prime Minister emphasized the viewpoint of implementing from low to high, from small to large, from simple to complex, ensuring each step is done firmly.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Construction to continue to do a good job of presiding over and coordinating cooperation with China, promoting the achieved results, building a roadmap, progress and specific working contents in the spirit of "6 clear", and reporting periodically every month.

Along with the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway project, we must continue to promote the Dong Dang - Hanoi and Mong Cai - Ha Long - Hai Phong railway projects connecting Vietnam and China.

NGOC AN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-tuong-phai-chu-dong-von-cua-viet-nam-cho-duong-sat-lao-cai-ha-noi-hai-phong-20250929192224032.htm