Quality Assurance System of Vietnam to Manage Public Infrastructure

In recent years, Vietnam has been undergoing a very rapid and drastic economic and managerial reform so as to approach the world integration. For a developing country from the poor and long past agriculture like Vietnam, construction is obviously required as the tidal force to build stepping stones. In fact, construction is account for about one – third of gross capital formation to any economy in transition. It is reported that expenditures on infrastructure construction in Vietnam have increased by 6.4%, from US$17.1 million in 2004 to US$18.2 million in 2005. From 2005 to 2009, the volume of investment in infrastructure is estimated to increase two times. More and more, the Asian Development Bank had sanctioned loans worth US$997.5 million to the government for deploying activities in transport and energy, leading to active growth in infrastructure spending over the past few years. It is the vigorous construction of key infrastructure that has laid an essential foundation for the development of the country.

Furthermore, the rate of urbanization is supposed to increase from 26.5% in 2005 to 31.6% in 2015. However, the development also reveals a deficiency of human resources’ capacity and technology to assure the quality of construction works. The number of accidents at construction sites and poor-quality infrastructure works has reached alarming figures. It is reported that accidents in construction, transport and industry projects make up the major proportion of labor accidents causing deaths in Vietnam. In 2008, the figure was almost 30% but it increased sharply to above 50% in 2009 (MOLISA). Occurrence of serious construction accidents or even the collapse of some large-scale infrastructure has caused huge financial and human loss and cast doubt on the reliability of construction works. Especially, when the public infrastructure is mentioned, it involves in the control and reputation of the government. Hence, enhancing construction quality assurance and labor safety is one of the top concerns of leaders of Ministry of Construction and concerned agencies.

Mr. Le Quoc Anh made a case study aimed to: (i) study the current quality management regulation in Vietnam; (ii) discuss the strength and weakness of quality control & quality assurance system in Vietnam; and (iii) study and analyze the application of this quality in a project

Conclusion

 As playing an important role in construction management, the quality assurance system of Vietnam government is supposed to audit and certify the quality of public infrastructure in the true and actual fact, not in theory or paperwork. As a developing country with the economy in transition and the huge volume in fundamental infrastructure construction, Vietnam is calling for the foreign investment, even in the state owned works, so the legal framework of Vietnam is hoped to become comfortable and integrated with the common playing – ground for all inbound and out bound investors. A transparent legal framework can assure the quality of construction from the commencement to the finish.

On the analytical base, it can be seen that the quality of construction works in Vietnam has been influenced by many factors, happening in every phase of construction process or commission process. Human or non-human factors have both direct and indirect influence on the quality of construction works.

Besides, the legal system in Vietnam has overlapped among regulations related to the quality. Vietnam government makes law impractical, resulting in complicate mending or misunderstanding application, even contrary among construction units.

Recommendation For Ha Noi – Hai Phong Expressway Project

The VIDIFI recommendations that can be proposed are as follows:

1. Increase the activeness for supervision consultancy unit by assigning the right and acceptance for regular works or categories. No need to wait for the acceptance from the investors.

2. The investors and the consultants cooperate to review all project standards to restrict risks if material or design changes.

3. Request contractors to change construction methods properly with new standards.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted below.

Abstract

In recent years, Vietnam has been undergoing the very rapid and drastic economic and managerial reform so as to approach the world integration. For a developing country from the poor and long past agriculture like Vietnam, construction is obviously required as the tidal force to build steeping stones. In fact, construction is account for about one – third of gross capital formation to our economy in transition. However, the drastic and rapid development in Vietnam also reveals a deficiency of human resources’ capacity and technology to assure the quality of construction works. The number of accidents at construction sites and poor-quality infrastructure works has reached alarming figures. Hence, enhancing construction quality assurance and labor safety is one of the top concerns of leaders of Ministry of Construction and concerned agencies. This paper focuses on studying quality assurance system (framework) of Vietnam government aiming to manage public infrastructure projects. Throughout the study, the strength and weakness of the system can be pointed out to discuss lessons learnt so that recommendation for improvement of the legal framework can be demonstrated.