It is known that the National Highway 51 BOT Project is one of the BOT road projects that has not reached consensus between the investor (BVEC) and the competent state agency (Vietnam Road Administration) regarding the time to collect tolls to generate profits. Specifically, while BVEC asserts that it has the right to collect tolls to generate profits according to the provisions of the signed BOT contract until mid-January 2030 (about 4 years), the Vietnam Road Administration believes that the time to collect tolls to generate profits is only 9 months.

To avoid BVEC from collecting tolls beyond the deadline, in early January 2023, the Vietnam Road Administration issued a document requesting to temporarily stop collecting tolls at toll stations of the National Highway 51 BOT Project from 7:00 a.m. on January 13, 2023, while negotiations between the two sides have not yet ended.

Since January 2023, the parties have gone through more than 20 negotiations without reaching a consensus, forcing investors to send petitions to state agencies and the National Assembly to demand their rights.

It is worth mentioning that, although the Government leaders and the Ministry of Transport have issued many documents requesting relevant agencies, including the Vietnam Road Administration (the direct management unit), to urgently resolve the existing problems and officially determine the end date of toll collection for the Project under the BOT contract form, it has been more than 1 year and 8 months since the toll collection was stopped, the implementation has been very slow and the existing problems have not been resolved completely.

Also because the disputes have not been resolved, the public ownership of the National Highway 51 section of the Project has not been possible, causing many difficulties in considering the allocation of budget capital for maintenance, repair, upgrading and renovation. As a result, after the temporary suspension of toll collection, the vital National Highway 51 section connecting the provinces in the Southeast region has appeared many damaged locations, potholes, cracked road surfaces, missing lane markings in many sections..., posing potential traffic safety risks.

It should be added that the situation of "sudden ownerlessness" does not only occur with the National Highway 51 BOT Project. Currently, there is at least one other BOT road project that has also had to stop collecting tolls while there has not been a consensus on the time to collect tolls to create profits, which can completely create traffic safety hotspots.

To avoid the situation of dodging and shirking responsibility, which affects the effectiveness of work handling and promptly resolve the existing problems of the project, the management agencies, especially the Vietnam Road Administration, need to fully perform their assigned functions and tasks, as the agency signing the contract and the management agency during the project's business and exploitation phase. This agency also needs to promptly have solutions to completely resolve the existing problems of the project according to its authority, only reporting to the Ministry of Transport on issues beyond its authority for consideration and resolution or reporting to competent authorities according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 18, Circular No. 50/2022/TT-BGTVT, dated December 30, 2022 on the performance of functions and tasks of competent agencies, agencies signing and implementing investment project contracts under the PPP method managed by the Ministry of Transport.

Regarding maintenance work during the toll collection suspension period, the Vietnam Road Administration - with the responsibility of being the management agency during the exploitation period - needs to urgently inspect, review and work with investors to clarify the responsibility for performing maintenance work, ensuring safety during exploitation according to regulations. More importantly, when the two sides are at odds and cannot reach an agreement, it is necessary to promptly bring the case to an independent agency (such as Commercial Arbitration or Economic Court) for adjudication.

This is the most civilized and effective way to deal with not only the BOT Project to invest in the construction and expansion of National Highway 51 from Km0 +900 to Km73 +600, but also other BOT projects with disputes and problems in the future.