Viet Development
On June 20, Deputy Minister of Strategy & Finance Joo Hyung-hwan attended a ceremony for the partial opening of the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway in Vietnam.
The Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway Project constitutes a part of the Pan-Asia Highway Project connecting Kunming, Yunnan Province in southern China to Hanoi and Hai Phong. A total of US$1.709 billion is scheduled to be invested in the construction of the 105.5 km long expressway. Once the project is completed, the length of time taken to travel from Hai Phong, the largest port city in Vietnam, to the capital city of Vietnam will be shortened from about four hours to 90 minutes.
The expressway has 10 sections. At present, the seventh section, 7.3 km long, is fully open, along with the eighth and ninth and a 500 m long portion of the 10th. The others are slated to be opened in stages by the end of this year.
The Korean government provided US$100 million for the seventh (9.3 km) and US$100 million for the 10th (9.2 km) via the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). It is planning to encourage the participation of more Korean builders in infrastructure projects in Vietnam, where road and railway construction projects each worth US$200 million to US$300 million are on the anvil.