Former transport minister withdraws from DCIC Former Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung is no longer a board member of Deo Ca Investment Joint Stock Company (DCIC), the firm has announced.   An artist’s impression of Ca Pass tunnel - Photo: Courtesy of DCIC DCIC said in a statement that after some newspapers reported the former minister’s participation in its board of directors was against the Government’s Decree 102/2007/ND-CP, leaders of the company discussed and agreed to let Dung stop his position as an independent board member at the enterprise. “Leaders of DCIC had not carefully considered all relevant legal documents before inviting Dung to join the board and this has caused negative public comments on our implementation of the Ca Pass tunnel project. We hereby acknowledge the mistake and apologize for that,” the statement said. The Ministry of Transport approved the drawing up of a feasibility study for the tunnel project in March 2001. However, the project was not turned into reality due to the large scale, complicated techniques and huge investments of the project. After the withdrawal of previous investors, the consortium of new investors at DCIC proposed carrying out the project and got approval from Dung in Decision 2860/QD-BGTVT dated October 5, 2010 when he was Minister of Transport. Based on the documents prepared by French consultant Egis Bceom International in October 2011, current Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang signed Decision 47/QD-BGTVT on January 6, 2012 agreeing on the deployment of the tunnel project under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT) formats. According to DCIC, many difficulties arose during the implementation of the project as a French lender required the Government’s loan guarantee and France’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. This resulted in higher investment capital for the project. Therefore, Thang demanded a stop to the EPC contract and that the project would be carried out by Vietnamese capable firms, and all documents related to finance and implementation were prepared again. This meant former Minister of Transport Dung did not involve in these documents. DCIC said Dung joined the project as an independent board member and an advisor, and did not make capital contribution. The Ca Pass tunnel lies on the National Highway 1A section between the central provinces of Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa. Invested by DCIC, the VND15.603-trillion project got off the ground in late 2012 and is scheduled for completion in 2017. SGT