After listening to reports of the relevant ministries on the collapse of the two approaching spans of Cần Thơ Bridge at 7.55 AM on September 26 and the rescue work, PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng said the incident was extremely serious, causing so heavy losses to human lives and material property. On behalf of the Government he sincerely held his personal responsibility to the whole people for the poor management on the part of the specialized government agencies that led to this painful incident.

The PM ordered the relevant sectors, echelons, and local authorities to continue searching for the missing persons, consoling and taking care of victims’ families and curing the injured.

To investigate into the incident the PM decided to establish an Investigation Board with Construction Minister Nguyễn Hồng Quân as its chief. Involving in the Board include senior officials from the Ministries of Public Security, Transport, Planning and Investment; National Assembly’s Committee for Science and Technology; Việt Nam Construction Association, Việt Nam Civil Engineering Society and representatives from Japanese independent scientific agencies specializing in civil engineering.

The Investigation Board is supposed to identify the causes of the incident within a month and submit its solutions to dealing with the consequences as well as which kinds of penalties to be imposed on the organizations and individuals involved in causing the incident.

Later in the day, at the meeting with Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Việt Nam Norio Hattori, PM Dũng stressed that Việt Nam and Japan would closely collaborate with each other in solving the incident.

And on this occasion Ambassador Hattori conveyed to PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng the deep condolences from the Japanese Government to all victims and the apology to the whole Vietnamese people for the incident. He confirmed that Japan would do its utmost to join hand with the Vietnamese Government in overcoming the catastrophe. The Ambassador confirmed to the Vietnamese PM that the incident would neither harm the good bilateral relationship between the two countries, nor slow down Japanese projects in Việt Nam.

PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng informed the Japanese guest of the State-level Investigation Board being established, and asked the Japanese Government to dispatch representatives from its independent scientific agencies in charge of civil engineering to join the Board. The PM suggested that the contractors continue their construction work and pay a greater attention to the safety as top priority.

By Xuân Hồng