Japan urges rail project to gather steam

Japan is pushing to breathe life into parts of the rejected North-South express railway project.

Representatives of the Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport (MoT) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) met on August 31 to discuss Japanese technical assistance to Vietnam to develop feasibility studies for the construction of three railway projects – the Hanoi-Vinh and HCM City-Nha Trang sections of the North-South express railway project and upgrading of the Hanoi-Noi ai railway.

“The Japanese side revealed it could provide non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) [for Vietnam] to build feasibility studies for these three projects,” said MoT minister Ho Nghia Dung.

“The MoT is promoting the negotiation process [with the Japanese side] to reach a common sense about content, progress and method to build the studies in accordance with existing regulations,” Dung said.

In the seventh meeting of the National Assembly in the middle of this year, Vietnamese law makers rejected the $56 billion North-South express railway project, to link Hanoi and HCM City, proposed by the government. Social and financial effectiveness and environmental issues were among the major concerns turning off legislators.

“At this moment, the government has no plan to invest in the North- South express railway, but stressed the necessity to continue with further studies to make clearer explanations for matters raised by the National Assembly members [in their seventh meeting],” Dung said.

“In order to have more detailed and thorough studies, the prime minister already agreed in principle to receive technical assistance via Japan’s non-refundable ODA to build feasibility studies for the construction of the Hanoi-Vinh and HCM City- Nha Trang sections of the project and the upgrading of the Hanoi-Noi Bai railway project,” Dung said.

In a document sent to relevant ministries and agencies in late July 2010, the prime minister requested the MoT to bring all the opinions contributed by the National Assembly members into the studies.

“The [Japan's] technical assistance is just for the studies to make clear the future investment possibilities for the North-South express railway project,” Dung said.

According to the MoT, it would take four years for the Vietnamese and Japanese consultants and the Vietnam Railway Corporation, the project’s investor, to complete the feasibility studies of the two sections after the technical assistance agreement was reached.

Jica’s office in Vietnam, which is responsible on Japan’s technical assistance, ODA loans and part of the grant aid in the country, declined to comment on the negotiations. – VIR

Tags: Vietnam North-South railway project, Vietnam Railway