Decision No. 1686/QĐ-TTg approves the Strategy for the Development of Rail Transport Infrastructure in Vietnam until 2020 and with a vision to 2050.

Pursuant to …;

Approving the Strategy for the Development of Railways Transport in Vietnam until 2020 and Vision until 2050

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to Conclusion No. 27-KL/TW dated September 17, 2008 of the Politburo on the Strategy for the Development of Railways Transport in Vietnam until 2020 and Vision until 2050;

Considering the proposal of the Ministry of Transport at the report No. 7731/TTr-BGTVT dated October 22, 2008,

Pursuant to …;

Article 1. Approves the Strategy for the Development of Railways Transport in Vietnam until 2020 and Vision until 2050 with the following main contents:

1. Development Orientation

a) The strategy for railway development must be consistent with the overall strategy for the development of transport and the strategy for socio-economic development of the country from now until 2020 and vision until 2050;

b) Railway transport is an important part of the economic and social infrastructure that needs to be prioritized for investment and development ahead of schedule;

c) Railway transport development should directly aim at modernity, speed, sustainability, closely linking with other modes of transport; fully utilizing advantages to serve the country's development effectively;

d) Linking railway development with ensuring national security, defense, environmental protection, maintaining public order and safety, and contributing to reducing traffic congestion, accidents, and promoting the development of remote, mountainous, and difficult areas;

đ) The State will focus on investing in developing the national railway infrastructure, initiating new construction projects and upgrading some key railway lines such as the North-South high-speed railway, the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong railway, and the Hanoi-Dong Dang railway under the two economic corridors and one economic ring program between Vietnam and China, while attaching importance to maintenance work to ensure efficient operation, smoothness, order, and safety;

e) Rapidly develop urban rail transport, intra-urban and inter-urban railways, serving as the backbone in public passenger transport, initially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City;

g) Encourage all economic sectors and mobilize all available resources to participate in investment in infrastructure, transportation equipment, and railway business operations according to planning and unified management by the State, with state-owned enterprises managing and operating the infrastructure system and transportation business on major and important railway lines in the country;

h) Vigorously promote the development of specialized science and technology, human resources, and enhance international cooperation to quickly industrialize and modernize railways;

i) Build a strong specialized railway industry capable of manufacturing locomotives, carriages, spare parts, and other equipment to meet domestic needs and eventually export;

k) Allocate reasonable land for the development of railway infrastructure, ensuring safe railway corridors in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Law;

2. Development Strategy

a) General Objective

The State will focus on investing in national infrastructure development while encouraging all economic sectors and individuals to participate in investment. Promote the development of modern and efficient railway business management models.

- By 2020: build a standardized and modern Vietnamese railway system, sustainable, safe, and environmentally friendly. Complete and put into operation several sections of the North-South high-speed railway, the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong and Hanoi-Dong Dang near-high-speed railways. Upgrade and restore the existing railway system to technical standards. Connect with railways of neighboring countries, industrial zones, seaports, and large mines. In major cities, construct urban railway lines to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. Railway industrial products have a high domestic content. Transportation services are expanded and guaranteed quality.

- Vision until 2050: meet all criteria for a developed country's railway system, with a modern national railway network and urban railways connecting political, cultural, tourism centers, key economic zones, large industrial zones, and major seaports to serve economic and social development requirements, national security, defense, and promote domestic and international cultural and tourist exchanges with high quality and service levels.

b) Specific Objectives

Ensure balance and appropriateness at each time point; determine a reasonable priority order for objectives to concentrate resources for development investment. Among them, prioritize the construction of urban railway systems in major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Hanoi-Lao Cai railway line, and the North-South high-speed railway.

- Phase until 2020

+ Meet at least 13% of passenger volume demand and 14% of cargo volume demand. On main corridors such as the North-South corridor, it is 37% for passengers and 40% for passengers and over 45% for cargo on the East-West corridor; meet 20% of urban passenger transport demand.

+ Prioritize implementing urban railway projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for operation; strive to complete and put into operation the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong and Hanoi-Dong Dang railways (under the two economic corridors and one economic ring program between Vietnam and China); complete and put into operation the North-South high-speed railway at 350 km/h, prioritizing early completion of the Hanoi-Hue or Hanoi-Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang sections; complete and put into operation the Yen Vien-Pha Lai-Halong-Cai Lan railway, connecting to major seaports, industrial zones, tourist areas... At the same time, upgrade and restore existing national railway lines to reach technical standards at 120 km/h for inter-provincial transport, cargo transport, and connection with ASEAN railways, researching to develop a railway network in the western part of the country.

+ The Vietnamese railway network must reach a density of 15 ÷ 17 km/1,000 km² and approximately 50 – 70 km/1 million people, double-track railways reaching a ratio of 35 ÷ 39%, and electrified railways reaching a ratio of 40 ÷ 44%, mainly high-speed railway lines from North to South; near-high-speed railway lines on East-West corridors and urban railway lines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

+ Renovate and construct facilities for manufacturing and assembling locomotives, carriages, and producing replacement parts with a localization rate of 50 – 60%; modernize technology and expand production capacity to produce approximately 5,000 – 9,000 passenger carriages and 50,000 – 53,000 freight carriages of high quality, meeting domestic demand as well as export requirements.

- Vision until 2050

+ Meeting at least 20% of the demand for passenger and cargo traffic volume. Among which, on main corridors such as the North-South corridor, it is 40% for passengers and the East-West corridor is 45% for passengers and over 50% for cargo; meeting at least 25% of the demand for urban passenger transportation.

+ Complete the high-speed railway from North to South with sections connecting Hanoi – Lang Son, Ho Chi Minh City – Can Tho – Ca Mau; complete the construction of the Central Highlands railway, the Trans-Asia railway, and the coastal railway in the Red River Delta; alongside completing urban railway networks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with appropriate technological solutions such as underground or elevated routes to fundamentally address traffic congestion, focusing on developing urban railway systems (metro and elevated railways) in other major cities.

+ The Vietnamese railway network must reach a density of 18 ÷ 21 km/1,000 km² and approximately 60 – 80 km/1 million people, double-track railways reaching a ratio above 50%, and electrified railways reaching a ratio above 50%.

+ Develop and modernize specialized industrial bases striving to meet 100% of domestic needs and aim towards exports.

c) Policies and implementation measures

- Regarding organization and institutional framework

+ Continue to perfect the overall planning for the development of the railway transport industry in line with the general orientation of transportation planning and the development of the national economy and society in the coming period.

+ Study, supplement, build, and amend legal regulations, standards, norms, procedures, rules, unit prices... to complete the related legal system ensuring the development of railway transport.

+ Establish reasonable freight rates in line with market mechanisms and socio-economic conditions of each region. Utilize tax policies and macro financial policies to regulate railway transport activities.

+ Develop Vietnam Railway Corporation into a multi-sector and multi-ownership Vietnam Railway Group operating under a holding company-subcompany model. In this model, the holding company is a state-owned enterprise responsible for managing and maintaining the railway infrastructure system, organizing the operation of the railway transport system. Subsidiaries are independent accounting enterprises closely related to the holding company in terms of capital, technology, and brand, operating in the field of railway transport and related fields according to the provisions of the law.

+ Strengthen cooperation and coordination between ministries, sectors, localities, and Vietnam Railway Corporation. Enhance the responsibility of all levels of government in leading and directing the implementation of planning, preserving land reserves for railway development, and ensuring railway traffic safety and order.

- Regarding mobilizing capital

+ Proactively allocate funds from the state budget; have special mechanisms to mobilize capital from various economic components both domestically and internationally such as ODA funds, preferential loans from governments of other countries, issuance of government bonds... to invest in building urban railway systems, key and important railway lines such as the North-South railway line (especially the high-speed railway), railways within the two-corridor-one-circumference economic program between Vietnam and China.

+ Build and promulgate incentive mechanisms encouraging all economic components to participate in investment and business in railway transport, attracting at least 10% (by 2020) and 20% (by 2050) of total investment capital from various economic components and organizations for the construction of railway transport infrastructure in various forms such as land-for-infrastructure swaps, joint ventures, build-operate-transfer (BOT), issuance of project bonds... for lines and sections with exploitation advantages according to planning and management by the state.

+ Have support mechanisms for railway industrial facilities to import new and advanced technology chains from advanced countries.

- Regarding human resource development

+ Strengthen investment in technical infrastructure, reform training programs, and expand training methods; emphasize socialization in training to ensure sufficient high-quality human resources to serve the development of modern railways.

+ Implement salary policies and incentives for workers operating under special conditions in the railway sector, especially in remote, mountainous, and difficult areas.

+ Establish a research institute to train and conduct in-depth research in the railway field; upgrade the current railway vocational college to have the capability to train practical engineers, meeting the current and future development needs of railways.

+ Allocate quotas for overseas training at the university and postgraduate level specializing in railways.

- Regarding science and technology

+ Implement policies to encourage research and application of science and technology, encourage training and attracting experts to work in the railway transport field.

+ Apply new science and technology in research, training, transportation operations, infrastructure construction, industry, and services. Particularly focus on applying information technology to plan and organize operations, collect and process customer information; develop automatic ticketing and inspection systems, invest in convenient equipment, and provide international standard services on trains.

- Regarding international cooperation

Expand international cooperation, particularly with countries that have developed railway industries, to take advantage of advanced experiences in the process of developing railways, cooperate in training human resources to receive and transfer new advanced technologies to meet current domestic development needs, and expand markets to other countries in the region and globally in the future.

Article 2. Tasks of Ministries, sectors, and related units

1. The Ministry of Transport:

a) Be responsible for managing and directing the implementation of the Strategy; if there is a need to update and supplement its contents, conduct research and submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

b) Direct the development of overall planning and detailed planning to implement the Strategy.

c) Regularly assess and update transportation demand to develop investment projects reasonably, ensuring full compliance with economic development requirements. In cases of significant changes, timely propose adjustments.

2. Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Vietnam:

Coordinate to continue researching, perfecting, and issuing mechanisms for effectively mobilizing and utilizing capital for railway industry development.

3. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment:

Take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to establish legal regulations on land reserved for railways, land within the safety zones of railway traffic, and protection of railway land.

4. Ministry of Industry and Trade:

Study policies to ensure stable power supply for electrified railways and information, signaling systems.

5. Ministry of Education and Training:

Take the lead, coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to create favorable conditions and allocate training quotas both domestically and internationally in the railway field.

6. People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities where railways pass through:

Ensure public security, traffic safety, organize propaganda to raise awareness of protecting railway works.

7. Vietnam Railway Corporation:

Be responsible for proactively researching and proposing relevant mechanisms and policies concerning operation, electricity consumption, training programs, etc., and coordinating with related ministries, sectors, and agencies to implement this Strategy.

Article 3. This Decision shall take effect from the date of signing.

Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government agencies, Chairmen of provincial and centrally governed city People's Committees, and related units and individuals are responsible for implementing this Decision.