Vietnam’s various ministries are carefully evaluating an offer from China that promises to provide more than $300 million to finance a road project in the northern province of Quang Ninh, Voice of Vietnam reported Monday.
Vietnam plans to construct a 96-km expressway connecting Mong Cai City to Van Don island district in the province. Mong Cai borders China’s Guangxi Province.
China, via the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China, has proposed to lend Vietnam $304.6 million or nearly 80 percent of the total investment of $382 million to implement the project, Voice of Vietnam said.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport supports securing the loan from China, saying it is an urgent and important project. It also wants to replace Quang Ninh provincial government to be authorized to approve the expressway project.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance suggests the country weigh China’s proposal carefully. It said normally China will demand the borrower to use their contractors, technology, and machinery as strings attched for the loan.
“It is crucial to continue to negotiate with the Chinese side to clarify conditions of their offered loan and ask them to provide more preferentials than the latest offers,” the Ministry of Planning and Investment said in a statement, adding that the lending should not include a condition to hire an engineering, procurement and construction contractor from China.
Vietnam’s careful considerations of the Chinese loan came at a time when the former has had a headache with a number of Chinese contractors in some Chinese-funded projects here.
China Railway 6th Bureau Group, the principal contractor of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong sky train line in Hanoi, for example, has come under fire for dragging its feet on the project, missing the 2015 deadline.
Source: vnexpress.net
