VNRA – MIS: The way for Vietnam Railways to get back on track
IN BRIEF
The railway sector plays a crucial role in the development of Vietnam’s economy, being an important medium to ensure efficient transportation of goods and connecting people nationally and internationally. It is for this reason, recognising the important role, but also the underdeveloped situation of Vietnam’s railway system, the Prime Minister recently approved a master plan for railway network development for the period 2021-2030. This master plan urges all parties to develop a suitable investment roadmap to meet Vietnam’s growing transportation needs.
In line with the Government of Vietnam’s strategic plan, Aus4Transport, the AUD30 million Australian Government initiative supporting Vietnam’s transport sector, has just launched a new activity that will contribute to Vietnam’s Railways growth. The activity, “Building A Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure (VNRA-MIS)”, will assist the Ministry of Transport and the Vietnam Railway Authority to develop and upgrade the railway infrastructure systems, allowing the administration to easily use data-driven technology to facilitate the operation and management of railway infrastructure throughout the country. Aus4Transport is, once again, supporting Vietnam’s strategic priorities and assisting the country to boost economic development and alleviate poverty.
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The Vietnam Railway sector, with a long and proud 140-year history, used to play a vital role within the Vietnamese transport sector, accounting for 30% of the total market share and making a significant contribution to the country’s socio-economic growth and national defense. However, very low investment and extremely outdated infrastructure, has left the sector unable to keep up with other types of transport. Specifically, by 2019, only 4.7 million passengers travelled by rail, making up a 0.2% of the total transport industry passenger numbers. When looking at passengers’ traffic measured in passengers-kilometers, the railway sector accounted for just 1% of total market share.
Vietnam has just set out an ambitious master plan on railway development until 2030, with a vision to 2050, that aims to strengthen the role and upscale the position of the railway sector within the transport network. The goal is clear: Vietnam railway network will meet the transport needs of 16.5 million tons of cargo and 30.9 million passengers by 2030, with these figures expected to increase by 15% and 19%, respectively, by 2050. To reach this target, the railway network plans to renovate seven existing railway lines with 2,440km total length and build up to nine new railway lines with 2,363km length.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the transport sector needs an estimated investment of 240,000 billion VND (equivalent to 10.45 billion USD). This will require a strong effort from the Vietnamese Government to attract investment from different sources and ensure adequate measures and procedures for efficient management.
The activity “Building A Management Information System for Railway Infrastructure (VNRA-MIS)”, implemented by Aus4Transport together with Vietnam Railway Authority, will play a critical role in preparing a solid base for the quality and management improvements required to support a much bigger, and more efficient railway sector. The upgraded and integrated management information system will provide a full range of data – key to the optimal, long-term management of railway infrastructure, facilitating performance monitoring and making clear the current status and use of national railway infrastructure assets. It will also provide enough tools to allow an accurate and fast analysis of the sector, efficiently supporting the development a high-quality master plan for the next 10 and 20 years and helping to build investment project portfolios for railway infrastructure.
A modern railway network will strengthen the integration capacity of the Vietnamese economy, enhance marketability and develop transport corridors closely linked with urban economic corridors and the countryside. This activity will strongly support Vietnam Railway administration to build a strong network that will help to achieve its targets by bringing rail volumes closer to those carried by other transport sectors and keep pace with the country’s economic growth and e-government development strategy.
