The setting up of the Infrastructure Working Group was triggered by former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan’s instructions during the annual VBF Meeting on November 29th 2004, and the Prime Minister’s Directive #3/2005/CT-TTg dated April 8th 2005. The group includes local and foreign companies participating in three sub groups (Power, Port, and Telecoms) along with lawyers and private banking and financial institutions. From the government side, the group includes the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the Ministry of Industry & Trade (MOI), the Ministry of Transport (MOT), its affiliate Vietnam Maritime Administration (Vinamarine) and the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines), the Ministry of Information & Communications (MIC), and other relevant agencies.

Heading the Group is Tony Foster, Managing Partner of Freshfields. Tony also leads the Power Sub-group.  The Port Sub-group is led by Paul Hoogwaerts, General Manager of Maersk, Shirley Justice, Chief Representative of Nike, and Barry Akbar, Country Manager of APL Vietnam. The Telecom Sub-group is led by Jean-Pierre Achouche, Country Director of  Orange-ftgroup.

The Group’s initial efforts paid off in new infrastructure development and policy formation in  Vietnam, such as the issuance of a brand-new BOT Decree promoting infrastructure BOT projects, the improvement in port capacity and handling capacity together with the granting of a number of licences to port developers during 2006-2007, and the review of port master plan for further enhancement of port capacity.