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As soon as the Tet holiday ended, MOT Minister Dinh La Thang convened two meetings to discuss the need to call for public investments in infrastructure projects.

Thang said at the meetings that five highway projects would be sold, including the Noi Bai – Lao Cai, Cau Gie – Ninh Binh, Ben Luc – Long Thanh, HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay, and Da Nang – Quang Ngai.

Of the five projects, Ben Luc – Long Thanh and Da Nang – Quang Ngai are still under construction.

Thang stressed that the projects must be sold within the year.

Prior to that, Thang urged the Vietnam Expressway Development Corporation (VEC) to sell the highways as soon as it could find buyers who would pay “reasonable prices”. 

Thang instructed VEC to sell parts of projects if it could not sell the entire projects because of their large scale. 

Investors have also made prompt responses to Thang’s call for investments. Vietjet immediately proposed to MOT to offer concessions to exploit T1 Terminal at Noi Bai International Airport for 20 years.

Meanwhile, just one day after the February 25 meeting, Vietnam Airlines sent a dispatch to MOT expressing its willingness to buy the terminal definitely.

As for highway projects, according to VEC’s deputy general director Pham Hong Quang, Bitexco, a large real estate developer, has asked for concessions to exploit the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay road which opened to traffic in February.

Bitexco is also the investor of the Dau Giay – Phan Thiet highway project which connects the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay route.

Will projects be sold this year?

Analysts noted that though investors have expressed interest in the projects for sale, no agreement or memorandum of understanding has been signed.

Vu Pham Nguyen Tung from Vietjet said the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) and ACV have been assigned to draw up detailed plans for the transfer.

“The value of the terminal will be determined after auditing, which will be referred to by the two parties to determine the price and the mode of sale,” he said.

An investor who is interested in airport projects also thinks concessions to private investors to exploit airport terminals could occur this year, and investors could begin business immediately after making improvements to the terminals.

However, he doubts that the sale of part or all of Phu Quoc Airport will be done this year.