The railway is one of the oldest industries in Vietnam. Having undergone 130 years of construction and development with its efforts, the Government's attention together with the assistance of international organizations, Vietnam railways has made considerable development and initiated many arterial roads for the Vietnam economy. However, Vietnam railways has not developed correspondingly in comparison with its growth potential, economic and social significance. To create new breakthroughs, it is essential that Vietnam railways should receive more capital support, and the open policies of international financial organisations, which can help Vietnam railways obtain its goals and implement its strategies well.
Initial achievements of international cooperation
Since the 1990s Vietnam railways has used and exploited quite effectively loans from Government organisations of Japan, France and China, and banks like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, AFD and KFW, to invest in new construction and upgrading important rail lines. At present, the renovation and improvement project of the Yen Vien - Lao Cai rail lines belonging to Kunming(China) - Lao Cai - Hai Phong traffic corridor has a total investment of US$160 million of which US$140 million is ODA loans, and US$20 million is Vietnam's counterpart capital. Of the total ODA loans, US$60 million is from Asian Development Bank (ADB); US$40 million is from the French Development Agency (AFD); EUR31 million (equal to US$40 million) is from the French Bank Treasury and Economic Policy (DGTPE). Project scale includes upgrading and renovating 73 weak bridges; Replacing all the 285km of old upper architectures (rail with recorded weight of 38kg/m - 43kg/m, accessories, normal reinforcement concrete sleepers) by the new ones (rail with recorded weight over P50kg/m, Panrond elastic accessories, pre-stressed reinforcement concrete sleepers), stations, the station yards at large stations. In addition, the project deals with consolidating road surfaces and slippery or collapsed weak supplement segments of the rail lines, as well as opening new terminals. The completed project will contribute to improving transport capacity on the Hanoi-Lao Cai route to five million passengers per year and 7.5 million tonnes of cargo per year by 2020.
Along with the above project, Vietnam Railway Corporation also promotes cooperation in borrowing ODA loans of the Japanese Government to build a number of urban railways in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, especially to support, consult and carry out probability research for construction projects on the north-south high speed railway. If the project on the North-South high speed railway is implemented and completed on schedule, it will open a new historical milestone of the railway sector in Vietnam.
In addition to loan projects for the construction and upgrading of roads and bridges of the railway infrastructure system, the Railway Corporation also preferentially borrowed EUR40.3 million of French ODA to upgrade signal information systems of the Vinh - Hanoi route, and borrowed from the Chinese Government through export-import bank of China to implement modernization projects on signal information system of northern routes and Vinh-Ho Chi Minh City railway. The agreed loan for these projects costs nearly RMB1.08 million. Project scale includes the construction of optic transmission information system, central control signal system, semi-automatic way-blocking system, the supervision system and computer testing and monitoring system at the station and related works of the routes: Hanoi - Lao Cai, Hanoi-Dong Dang, Hanoi-Thai Nguyen and Hanoi’s focal area.
Mr Ngo Anh Tao, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Railway Corporation stated: The development of Vietnam railway transport has received great support from international organisations. With the development strategy of railway transport till 2020 and vision by 2050 and overall development plan of Vietnam railway till 2020 and vision by 2030 approved by the Prime Minister, the railway sector expects to continue to receive further co-operative support from international organisations, such as the Japanese Government, the French Government, the Korean Government, the Chinese Government; and international credit organisations like the Asian Development Bank, WB Bank, KFW and AFD.
Future strategic projects
To promote all collaborative aspects among inland border provinces and coastal provinces of the Tonkin Gulf area between the two countries in the fields of trade, agriculture, industry, services and transportation, development cooperation program of the Mekong sub-region, The Government of Vietnam and China have agreed to develop the cooperation program "Two corridors, one Vietnam-China friendship economic belt." To carry out this program, the Vietnam Railway Corporation in cooperation with Chinese counsellors is making investment report about construction of the standard double-line electrified railway from Hai Phong - Hanoi - Lao Cai connecting with Ha Khau – Kunming(China), which is in progress and will be completed by 2013. Thanks to this project, the Vietnam Railway Corporation will ensure maximum efficiency of freight transportation in provinces within the economic corridors Yunnan(China)-Lao Cai- Hanoi-Hai Phong and reduce traffic on Road 5, contributing to the growth of Vietnam-China economic cooperation and to ensuring the community’s benefits.
Together with the strategic project "Two corridors, one Vietnam-China friendship economic belt" attracting the attention of organisations and people, construction projects of the North-South high speed railway has shown the State’s determination to industrialize and gradually modernize Vietnam's railway.
Mr Ngo Anh Tao said: At present, Vietnam's railway network has developed 2,600km connecting residential areas with cultural and agricultural centres and industry sectors, except for the Mekong Delta. Vietnam Railways has been connected to China Railways in two directions: Yunnan(China) through Lao Cai Province, and Guangxi(China) through Lang Son Province. Vietnam Railways has great potential to develop the railway network connecting networks of Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore’s and to Laos’ Railways. The railway network also extends to mineral mines, industrial zones, important ports and urban railway. Grasping this potential, the Vietnam Railway Corporation is continuing to plan for the implementation of strategic railway projects. Yet, Vietnam is now said to get out of poverty, the criteria for support to the development of transport and infrastructure has been reduced, which will make the development of transport and infrastructure in Vietnam more difficult, especially the railway transport sector. In addition to its own efforts and the attention of the Party and Government, Vietnam Railway Corporation still needs support from government organisations and international credit suppliers in companion with the railway sector to carry out each phase of North-South high speed railway construction project, and development planning of railway traffic till 2020, and vision by 2030.
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