On the afternoon of October 3, 2024, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a working session of the Government Standing Committee with enterprises constructing key national projects. Also attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, Minister, Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Do Duc Duy; Leaders of ministries, branches, central agencies; representatives of nearly 30 enterprises and contractors participating in the construction of key national projects and associations: Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations, Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, Vietnam Engineering Consultant Association (VECAS).

At the working session, after the leaders of the Ministry of Construction reported on the current difficulties and problems in national key projects, the delegates requested the Government to direct the Government agencies to perfect the institutions on investment, contracts, bidding; the mechanism of bidding designation for a number of special projects and packages; increase the loan limit for construction enterprises; thoroughly resolve difficulties and problems in unit price norms in construction works and site clearance; create conditions for domestic enterprises to participate in an important role in implementing upcoming key national projects in order to take advantage of technology, experience, resources, management, etc.

VECAS’ President Nguyen Thi Duyen agreed with the opinions of the Ministry of Construction and delegates and highlighted that despite limitations, the achievements and contributions of the construction consulting force through projects are noteworthy at the working session. The President reported on a number of issues such as: the mechanism for resolving disputes in construction contracts when applying the international contract forms (etc. FIDIC) in many key projects using ODA capital that has been proposed by the Project Management Boards for many years but has not been thoroughly resolved; issues in appraisal, approval of design documents, acceptance of design products when applying the Building Information Model (BIM) due to the lack of detailed regulations and instructions; Cost for consulting work in general, especially consulting cost in key transport projects, are inadequate and do not meet work requirements; slow acceptance of consulting documents leads to difficulties in finalizing and paying consulting contracts. The VECAS recommends that the Ministry of Construction supplement the dossier for acceptance of consulting work when accepting and handing over the project for use.

In addition to reporting difficulties and obstacles, the VECAS’ President recommended that the Government consider assigning responsibilities to Vietnamese construction consulting enterprises and construction contractors to participate in the design and construction with an important role in upcoming national key projects such as the High-speed Railway project, Urban Railway… in order to implement the “Strategy for developing science, technology and innovation in the construction industry to 2030″ in Decision 569/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister dated May 11, 2022”. At the same time, it is recommended that the Government issue policies to soon train high-quality human resources in construction consulting (design, project management – supervision, contract management), construction contractors… to meet the requirements of this Project. Reality shows that although the project is complex and uses new techniques, to control progress and limit problems in acceptance and payment, close coordination is needed with the main role of domestic consultants and contractors.

At the end of the working session, the Prime Minister stated that the Government always cares about construction enterprises; listens, shares and understands the difficulties of enterprises; basically agrees with the enthusiastic opinions of the delegates, assigns relevant ministries and branches to fully absorb the opinions for direction and implementation. The Prime Minister summarized some results achieved in implementing key – important national projects and clearly stated 6 tasks to remove obstacles and promote strategic infrastructure development.