Vietnam premier angered by year-long rigmarole of selecting investors

The premier even took such technological advance as sending humans to the moon to illustrate that Vietnam is lagging far behind the world in its modernization bid, as he addressed an online conference from Hanoi on Tuesday.

The event was held to recap the implementation of Resolution No.13 on infrastructure development so that Vietnam could basically become an industrialized country by 2020.

It seems a rough road for the Southeast Asian nation to go then, with Ho Chi Minh City leaders telling the conference that the formalities to choose investors for infrastructure development remain complicated, as it takes as many as 588 days to complete them.

The figure left the prime minister in astonishment and apparent displeasure.

“My goodness, how could you do anything when it takes more than five hundred days or more than a year only to select the investors?” he asked.

“People have traveled to outer space, the moon and returned several times but you have yet to finish selecting the investors. How would you carry out our industrialization and modernization mission then, my comrades?”

The premier requested that the issue should be seriously considered and tackled “in the nearest time.”

“We [have] set the procedures and we have to fix their problems,” he said.

“The management should be reformed in a way that is most convenient for members of the public and businesses.”

Resolution No.13 took effect in January 2012 and has since yielded positive results after more than three years of implementation, the prime minister said.

Vietnam has been cutting its public spending and the resolution has enabled the private sector to join in the development of the country’s infrastructure, according to the premier.

Many large-scale infrastructure projects have reached completion during the implementation of the resolution.

These include the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong, Cau Gie-Ninh Binh, Lien Khuong-Da Lat expressways, Thang Long Highway, and Terminal T2 at Noi Bai International Airport in the capital, according to a report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

“The reality proves that Resolution No.13 is on the right track, and we can perform even better,” the premier said.