Work to start on VN section of transnational road

Construction of the 220km Vietnamese segment of a transnational highway linking the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) will begin in the second quarter of the year, says Duong Tuan Minh, general director of the My Thuan Project Management Unit.

The 1,000-km highway will run from Bangkok City in Thailand, pass the border town of Kok Kong Town and Sihanoukville City in Cambodia and reach the Vietnamese border town of Ha Tien in Kien Giang Province before ending at Ca Mau Province, where it meets the country’s National Highway 1A.

Its section in Thailand has been built and just 34 kilometres in the Cambodian section remain to be completed.

Viet Nam’s 220-m section, which runs on the western coast of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta and is expected to be completed at the end of 2013, will need an investment of about US$500 million, Minh said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will loan Viet Nam $75 million for the first phase of the project, which costs $390 million. The remaining capital will be sourced through a $25 million ODA loan from Australia and a preferential loan of $134 million from South Korea. Viet Nam will use its contingency cost for site clearance. The second phase of the project is also expected to receive capital assistance from ADB fund.

Experts have said the highway will enhance the socio-economic development of not only the provinces of Kien Giang and Ca Mau, but also the adjacent provinces of Can Tho, An Giang, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang.

The highway would be a great motivation for the development of localities in the region of Ca Mau Peninsula, said Bui Ngoc Suong, chairman of Kien Giang Province People’s Committee. “Residents in the region expressed happiness with the project when we conducted studies for the highway,” he said. Suong added that the prospects of the highway have brought the province an average growth rate of 12 per cent in the last three years. “Many overseas Vietnamese in Thailand told me they would invest in the homeland when they can visit the provinces by car,” he said.

Duong Tien Dung, deputy chairman of Ca Mau Province People’s Committee, said the highway would pass by several industrial parks and economic hubs of the province, significantly improving the delivery of cargoes from these sites.

Chalermkiat Salakkham, director of the Laem Chabang Port in Thailand’s Chonburi Province told the Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper that he expected the port to boost circulation of cargo from Cambodia and Viet Nam.

Cambodian Kok Kong Town’s authorities have developed several recreation zones in the area near Thai border that Bangkok residents can reach in just four hours by car.

Authorities in Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces are carrying out site clearance works for the construction of the highway, which ADB country director in Viet Nam, Ayumi Konishi, has called a corridor that will open up opportunities for cooperation and development.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Tags: the Greater Mekong Subregion, Vietnam transnational road, Vietnam transportation