Veerasak Likhitruangsilp, Sy Tien Do, Masamitsu Onishi, and Tung Thanh Dinh Tran

DOI: 10.14456/sjst-psu.2018.172

pp. 1405 - 1419

Abstract

The increasing demand for transportation and the ineffectiveness in financing infrastructure projects contribute to
various challenges for Vietnam in the recent decades. Financial investment in infrastructure projects is usually so large that the
state budget cannot cover all of it. In order to encounter this challenge, Vietnam has called for the participation of other economic
sectors, especially the private sector. Consequently, the government has been cooperating with the private sector in the form of
public-private partnership (PPP). The development of PPP projects faces a variety of critical risks; therefore, it is challenging for
the government to attract private investors. This paper investigates the problems affecting the performance of PPP transportation
projects in Vietnam. We gathered general information and organizational structures of the PPP projects as well as compiled the
problems experienced in previous PPP projects through in-depth interviews with PPP experts in Vietnam. Interestingly, there are
a large number of critical problems affecting the feasibility stage of PPP projects, including inadequate feasibility studies,
changes in the laws and regulations, government intervention, lack of transparency in bidding, unfair process of selection in the
private sector, and conflicting or imperfect contracts. In addition, the only one significant success factor in the PPP projects was
incentives provided by the government. The results of this study can assist in implementing PPP transportation projects in
Vietnam so that the nation can establish public policies that attract both domestic and foreign private investors.