HCMC – The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam will be reorganized into two departments, with one responsible for roads and the other for expressways, said Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The.
The imminent reshuffle is meant to improve State management, as the model of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam no longer suits the current requirements in terms of mechanism and policy. “The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam will surely cease to exist” when the plan is approved by the Government, the minister is quoted by the local media.
The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam has recently submitted a plan to the ministry proposing splitting itself into the Department of Road Management and the Department of Expressway Management. Nguyen Van Huyen, head of the directorate, said he had submitted the plan to the ministry as told, but he did not agree with it.
Minister The said his ministry was working on a scheme to collect feedback from ministries, agencies and the public over the restructuring of the directorate before forwarding the plan to the Government for the final say. He said there are differences but it is the Government and the Prime Minister that will decide.
At a regular press briefing at the Ministry of Home Affairs on June 20, Vu Hai Nam, a senior official with the ministry, said the two planned departments would operate separately and would not overlap each other in State management over roads. While roads also encompass expressways, but “expressways are now considered artery routes connecting growth zones and creating new growth momentum, so there needs to be a new, concentrated management mechanism,” the official said.
However, Nguyen Van Huyen of the directorate said problems would arise when separating the directorate into two different agencies as both would oversee roads.
In March, the Prime Minister sent a dispatch to ministries and localities urging them to reshuffle and reorganize administrative and public entities to streamline the State machinery.
