Vietnam Expects to Resume $800M WB-funded Expressway Next Year

The Project Management Unit is seeking approval from the Ministry of Transport to kick off construction of the long-stalled Dau Giay-Phan Thiet Expressway worth $1 billion in the southern Vietnam in 2017. The VND17.7 trillion ($793 million) expressway will be developed into two phases. The first part will have a length of 36km road from Dau Giay to Highway No.1, which will be funded by loans from the International Development Association (IDA) under the World Bank (WB), and the second part containing 62km which will be invested under the PPP format. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) and Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) will work together to mobilize financial resources and prepare legal procedures for the investors to push forward. Meanwhile, Vietnam currently has over 600km of expressway that are being used. The country has a target of total 2,500 km of highway by 2020, in which the state will have to spend over VND181.2 trillion building a total of 2,708km of expressway. The rest of the needed resources will be mobilized from different sources including private firms. (http://petrotimes.vn/ Mar 16)