Traffic BOT: If not resolved definitely, it is hard to attract the investment

Traffic BOT: If not resolved definitely, it is hard to attract the investment

In order to solve definitely at the hot spot of BOT stations, the exemption and reduction of fees is not the best solution. Especially, BOT station problems need resolving quickly and neatly now, and if not, it will be hard to attract capital for the next BOT projects.

Why does the BOT traffic become a "hot spot"?

According to Minister Nguyen Van The, in order to handle some inadequacies in the BOT projects, the Ministry of Transport directed the Vietnam Road Administration to work with the localities and the investors to reduce the price for BOT stations nationwide. Until now, the Ministry of Transport exempted and reduced the price at 51/55 BOT stations in two forms including; discount for the entire vehicle through the stations and reducing 50-100% of the fee people, households, and businesses travelling around the area of the station.

However, the situation of lack of security and order at the collecting stations tends to be complicated. It does not ensure traffic order and safety that affects the interests of many people involved in the traffic. In a number of BOT stations such as Cai Lay, Trang Bom - Bien Hoa, Soc Trang, the opposition of drivers has spread to many other stations such as Can Tho - Phung Hiep station, Song Phan station - Binh Thuan province, the north station of Khanh Hoa, Ninh An Station, Cam Thinh Station...

According to the Ministry of Transport, the reason was that the operation of the fee collection stations led to the fee payment of vehicles using roads freely, the users then had a psychological opposition for the collection fees. Now, the system of legal documents regulating this investment form has not been completed and not been suitable to the reality; The process of drafting the legal documents regulating the BOT form, especially the fee policy, has not expected the impacts on the road users fully.

In addition, the selection of station location and fee policy in some projects were inadequate. For the national highways, only fee collection was applied and was inadequate to ensure fairness (People who were living close to the toll stations travelled only a short distance but they still had to pay fees, however people that travelled a longer distance of 40-50 kilometers between 2 toll stations were still free of charge). At the same time, the quality of road service by the investors was limited, damaged, degraded, and not repaired timely.

Reduce the confidence of investors

Talking to the reporter of the Customs News on the BOT traffic issues in the country at the current time, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thuy, the traffic specialist said that the clarification and publicity of the "input" – “output” of the BOT projects were essential. Because the publicity for the time of capital collection, the investment capital would make the people “satisfied” with the fee they had to pay, at the same time, the call for capital of investors for other new BOT projects would be easy.

"There will not be any investors willing to invest billions of dong in a project that has to spend a lot of time to collect capital and method,” he said.

Further analysis on the damage because of extending the solution time at the BOT hotspots, Prof. Dr. Dang Dinh Dao, former Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Development (the National Economics University) affirmed that the investment and development policy of transport infrastructure in the form of BOT changed the face of the country's traffic, contributed to the socio-economic development. And it was necessary to continue to implement this form to mobilize resources for infrastructure development for the country.

"However, if we keep extending the tension at the BOT stations, with exemption and reduction of price that is not right to the fee collection route, it will make the investors suffer losses, and the call for capital for the BOT projects, especially North-South highway projects, will be very difficult. Therefore, the problem here is to propose the solutions to ensure commitment, not to break the financial plan; comply with the provisions of the law, to maintain credibility with the national and international investors to attract the social resources, to serve the country’s development and to solve the urgent matters of people”, said Mr. Dao.

On the optimal plan for the upcoming BOT traffic projects, Prof. Dr. Dang Dinh Dao proposed that the functional agencies could organize the online bidding, collect the opinions of people as well as the relevant ministries and branches. It should be noted that the recent situation at the BOT toll booths was not only bargain of fee level, but also a conflict of economic interests that could threaten to cause greater social problems.