The Prime Minister of Vietnam, Pham Minh Chinh, has requested overseas development assistance loans from Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, to build the proposed north-south high-speed railway, VN Express is reporting. This comes after the Ministry of Transport announced that it intended to avoid foreign loans to pay for the project in favour of utilising domestic finances.
“With a spirit of independence and self-reliance, the Politburo has decided that we will not depend on foreign loans, as borrowing from any country often comes with strings attached,” Nguyen Danh Huy, Deputy Minister of Transport, told local reporters last week.