The agencies and units also proposed further refining regulations on subcontractors, contract transfers, joint ventures, general contractors, and managing contractors, with the aim of clearly defining responsibilities and authority in line with the practical requirements of large-scale project implementation.
Strengthening organisational and management capabilities
In recent years, the technical capabilities of Vietnamese construction businesses have made "leap-and-bound" progress. Domestic businesses have gradually mastered the construction of long-span cable-stayed bridges, undertaken large-scale expressway projects, improved the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) tunnelling method for mountain tunnels, and begun to adopt new technologies for urban and high-speed railways.
However, construction capability is only one component of a general contractor's overall capacity. To take responsibility for organising an entire project, a business must develop expertise in management, finance, legal and contractual matters, technology, design management, supply chains, and the coordination of multiple contractors. Meanwhile, many infrastructure projects have traditionally been divided into separate contract packages, ranging from civil engineering and construction to intelligent transport systems (ITS), lighting, and road safety. Investors or project management boards directly manage, connect, and coordinate the various contractors.
This organisational approach is suited to the management requirements at each stage and makes it easier to monitor individual contract packages directly. However, as projects become larger and comprise increasingly interconnected components, the fragmented model has revealed limitations and shortcomings. Investors must manage numerous contracts; interfaces between packages may overlap; and a problem affecting the overall critical path often involves multiple parties, making coordination and resolution more complicated.
From the perspective of developing business capabilities, organising projects through multiple separate contracts also limits opportunities for a single contractor to undertake a sufficiently large scope of work to gain practical experience in overall organisation, coordination and accountability.
According to calculations by the Academy of Construction Strategy and Cadres Training, investment capital demand for transport and construction infrastructure is expected to reach nearly 2.1 quadrillion VND by 2030, excluding maintenance costs. This large scale of investment creates a corresponding requirement for stronger implementation capabilities. Complex infrastructure projects require not only contractors capable of delivering individual components to a high standard, but also a sufficiently capable central entity to integrate design, procurement and construction, coordinate resources, and control the critical path, schedule, quality, costs, and risks.
Viet Nam has recently been implementing several large-scale infrastructure projects simultaneously, creating a growing demand for general contractors capable of organising, coordinating, and assuming responsibility throughout the project. However, the formation of strong general contractors depends not only on businesses' own capabilities, but also on project organisation methods, mechanisms for allocating authority and responsibility, and management methods when adopting general contracting models such as EC and EPC.
“The capacity to act as a general contractor cannot be built in a short period; it must be accumulated through successive projects. Mechanisms should identify businesses with genuine capabilities when assigning responsibilities, while creating opportunities for them to gradually assume greater responsibilities through practical experience,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, an economic expert.
Drawing on a review and assessment of contractors' practical experience, Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC), also proposed that regulatory bodies evaluate and expand contracting models, refine mechanisms regarding general contracting, structure bid packages to align with business capabilities, and clearly assign responsibilities and risks among the involved parties. Such measures would enable domestic contractors to enhance their organisational and management capabilities, and assume more significant roles in projects.
Single-point management
According to experts, one of the conditions for developing strong general contractors is to change project organisation and management methods. Instead of dividing work into smaller packages and dispersing authority and responsibility across multiple contracts, EC and EPC models concentrate implementation and organisational authority in a single entity while clearly establishing the general contractor's responsibility for project outcomes.
A representative of the Department for Roads of Viet Nam under the Ministry of Construction noted that consolidating smaller, separate contract packages into larger packages managed by a single general contractor was an emerging trend worth studying. Such an approach could help ensure technical consistency and accelerate progress of major projects. At the same time, the shift towards general contracting requires changes in the way regulatory bodies and project management boards operate.
“Moving to a general contracting model requires regulatory bodies and project management boards to be prepared to redefine the boundaries of their authority. Rather than directly allocating individual small work items or participating in the selection of subcontractors, investors must elevate their role to that of a macro-manager and establish control milestones,” stated a representative of the Department for Roads of Viet Nam.
Under this approach, the investor's management role does not diminish; instead, the method changes from directly handling numerous operational tasks to exercising overall project oversight. This requires the investor to strengthen their capabilities in design appraisal, financial risk assessment and integrated contract management, while making greater use of modern control tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and progress critical-path monitoring. This approach also addresses the challenge of granting general contractors greater coordination authority: businesses must have sufficient autonomy to organise implementation while the state retains firm control over the project.
The representative of the Department for Roads of Viet Nam stressed that granting businesses greater autonomy “does not mean the state is easing its management or oversight in any way”. Businesses seeking selection for nationally significant projects must demonstrate genuine capabilities in engineering, supply chain management, finance, legal compliance, technology application, transparency, and accountability.
A general contractor's decision-making authority must be proportionate to its responsibilities. If it lacks sufficient authority to make decisions and coordinate activities within its remit, the model will struggle to deliver its full benefits. The challenge, therefore, is not to continue fragmenting authority to make oversight easier, but to establish a mechanism that selects the right businesses, grants them powers commensurate with their capabilities and monitors their performance through results.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr and lawyer Duong Dang Hue, former Head of the Civil and Economic Legislation Department under the Ministry of Justice, current legislation already contains provisions on main contractors, subcontractors, joint ventures and EPC general contractors. However, for models in which general contractors assume a more extensive role in project organisation, coordination, and management, their legal status, scope of authority, responsibilities and oversight mechanisms need to be clarified further.
As Viet Nam increasingly undertakes large-scale infrastructure projects, the formation of strong general contractors has become an urgent practical necessity. To achieve this, businesses need opportunities to undertake larger scopes of work and assume greater responsibilities, allowing them to build up their capabilities in organising, coordinating, and comprehensively managing projects.
A mechanism that selects genuinely capable businesses, grants them authority commensurate with their capabilities and enables contractors to mature through practical experience will provide the foundation for developing Vietnamese general contractors capable of organising and implementing large and complex infrastructure projects. This will allow them to gradually assume leading roles in the country's infrastructure development.
