Vietnam ministry oks $2.87B HCM City road upgrade project

News - The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has approved a VND54.58 billion ($2.87 billion) project to upgrade crossing roads on the Ho Chi Minh Highway, the second route running from the north to the south of Vietnam.

The project, which will be developed into three phases, is aimed to upgrade 54 crossing roads with a total length of 2,608 kilometers from the northern province of Cao Bang and the southern province of Ca Mau, the Dau tu newspaper reported Friday.

The Southeast Asian country will upgrade 12 routes in the first phase (from now to 2015), 23 other ones in the second phase (2015-2020) and the rest in the last phase (after 2020).

Last year, Vietnam invested a total of VND708.8 trillion in development projects, up 15% on-year, including VND228.24 trillion for major infrastructure projects, up 98% from a year earlier.

The Southeast Asian country is in dire need of capital for developing infrastructure projects nationwide. It plans to raise VND56 trillion from bond issuances for its major infrastructure projects this year.