Under the proposal just submitted to the Government, the Bank for Investment and Development for Vietnam (BIDV) as the lead stakeholder in BEDC also petitioned that the expressway company would refund the investment to the Government in four years, said an official with the transport ministry. Earlier, the company had proposed to collect toll fees on the expressway over a lengthy period of 60 years, which was rejected by central authorities as unviable.

BEDC is a consortium established by large corporations and economic groups, including Vinashin, PetroVietnam, Bitexco, VNPT, and Song Da Corporation.

Under the scheme now awaiting the Government’s consideration, the State-owned bank proposed that the investment capital of HCMC-Trung Luong expressway would be refunded within fours years after the handover of the commercial right over the expressway linking HCMC with Mekong Delta’ Tien Giang Province.

To have the huge sum to refund the Government, the bank also asked that it be allowed to arrange finance and provide commercial loans for BEDC. BIDV would raise money from local and foreign sources to pay for the right, according to the plan.

The HCMC-Trung Luong expressway, which got off ground in December 2004, is part of the large-scale HCMC-Can Tho expressway. Under the previous plan, the 62-km road section required investment of VND6.55 trillion (US$385 million).

The My Thuan Project Management Unit (My Thuan PMU), under the transport ministry, was named the project owner.

In 2008, the project ran into capital shortage. Duong Tuan Minh, general director of My Thuan PMU, said the Government therefore had approved to increase the total investment capital from US$6.55 trillion to VND9.88 trillion (US$581 million). However, the State coffer has just disbursed about VND6.55 trillion.

Capital shortage and other sticky issues such as site clearance have hindered the project’s progress, and the completion initially scheduled for the end of 2007was defaulted and now is set at the end of this year.

Besides the determination to take over the commercial right over the expressway, BEDC has also sought the Government approval to build other sections of the expressway between HCMC and Can Tho City, from Trung Luong to My Thuan and on to Can Tho under build-operate-transfer(BOT) form.

After completion, the four-lane HCMC-Trung Luong will allow a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour. The expressway also will help shorten by half the traveling time between HCMC and Tien Giang.