ODA project: Counterpart capital disbursed as... "so called"

The Lach Huyen International Port project has encroached on the sea, creating an area of ​​1km2

Heavy debt

The port city will benefit from two major projects: Lach Huyen international gateway port and Tan Vu - Lach Huyen motorway invested by the Ministry of Transport (MOT). Accordingly, both projects are implemented with ODA capital; of which the "super" Lach Huyen port has a total investment of more than 18 trillion VND, with most of it borrowed from Japan.

According to the representative of the investor - Project Management Unit (PMU) Maritime, Lach Huyen International Port has 4 main construction and installation packages, up to this point, 2 loan agreements worth 32.9 billion Japanese Yen have been signed. In particular, Package No. 6 (construction of breakwater section A, shore protection embankment, beach reclamation, soft soil treatment and water and electricity infrastructure) constructed by the Penta - Toa (Japan) contractor partnership has achieved more than 84% of the volume; The remaining bidding packages are and will continue to be implemented, with the goal of completing the entire project in 2019. However, arranging counterpart capital from Vietnam to pay VAT and equipment import tax for foreign contractors is facing many difficulties.

“In 2014, we registered for the first time 313 billion VND in counterpart capital, but were only granted 50 billion VND; The second time we registered for 200 billion VND, we were only granted 80 billion VND. Last year, when we first registered for 500 billion VND, we were granted 40 billion VND. In 2016, the Board registered 500 billion VND, but up to now we have not been granted any VND. We currently owe contractors more than 140 billion VND. On the Japanese side, they are very dissatisfied with such a debt situation. Therefore, they have sent a letter asking us to pay, otherwise it will affect the progress," said Deputy General Director of PMU Maritime Nguyen Ngoc Quang.

The above situation is also happening at the Tan Vu - Lach Huyen motorway project, with a total investment of nearly 12 trillion VND (ODA loan of 50 billion Yen, counterpart fund of 1,800 billion VND). According to the representative of the investor - PMU 2, by early March 2016, the volume of joint venture contractors carrying out the project had reached about 4,874/7,632 billion VND, equivalent to 64% of the contract value (6.5% more than planned). But up to this point, contractors are still in debt of more than 230 billion VND in VAT and nearly 18 billion VND in import tax and import VAT.

Representative of the joint venture - Sumitomo Mitsui (Nhat Ban) Construction Co., Ltd. has sent many documents to PMU2 and the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Hanoi to notify the incident, and at the same time "hinted"  that if the debt situation persists, litigation cannot be ruled out.

“Must be fair play”!

"Sumitomo's construction to date has reached 72% of the total output value. Specifically, for the main project, they have simultaneously constructed bored pile items, cast and installed SBS beam segments, constructed the pedestal and abutment body of the bridge on the Hai An side. The contractor has also installed bridge bearings and installed steel sheet piles for onshore construction at 76/86 locations...  But the situation of arranging counterpart capital is very serious. difficult despite the investor's great efforts," said Mr. Murakata - Contract Quantity Engineer of contractor Sumitomo Mitsui.

Around the above issue, Head of Project Management Department 3 (PMU2) Bui Huy Kiem frankly said: "Whatever we do needs to be fair play (fair play - PV). We can't keep asking people to speed up the construction progress, while not paying them enough money is not okay."

In fact, despite being owed hundreds of billions by the investor, the contractor partnership Sumitomo - Cienco4 - Truong Son still maintains the pace of construction on the construction site, with an estimated output of 300 - 400 billion VND/month. Similarly, at Lach Huyen Port Project, the construction site is still bustling with construction.

Specifically, Package No. 6 has been implemented and has so far reclaimed the sea to create 1km2 of land, currently continuing to embank and install tetrapod blocks...; Particularly, the container yard area at the port is expected to be handed over by PMU Maritime on schedule... even though reciprocal capital to pay contractors is still at a standstill.

Talking with PLVN about this issue, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong admitted: "This is the general situation for all ODA projects, not just any one project. Because our budget is difficult and cannot be allocated, counterpart capital in 2015 for traffic projects is only enough for 1 quarter (by April 2015 to fully disburse). Therefore, we had to request an additional amount of 7,000 billion VND".

Knowing that, but the investor's representatives - those who have to "face-to-face" every day, and recently continuously receive debt collection letters from foreign contractors, still want us to respect the contract, and especially need to implement it in the spirit of "fair play".

Source: http://baophapluat.vn/