The 98-kilometer Cam Lo-La Son section, which connects the central provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, will have four lanes with a width of 23 meters. On opening to traffic in 2021, the expressway will allow speed up to 80 kilometers per hour.

At the project’s inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc reminded the Ministry of Construction, the project’s management board, and contractors to “fully realize their responsibilities, stick to schedule, ensure work quality, and combat violations and corruption in capital construction investment.”

The Ministry of Transport will continue to complete procedures to start work on the remaining sections of the North-South Expressway, two of which are wholly state-funded and another eight are in the form of public-private partnerships.

Currently, Vietnam has nearly 1,000 km of expressways, and expects to build another 900 km by the end of 2021. Between 2021 and 2025, the government aims to build an additional 2,000 km of expressway, the PM added.

The Cam Lo-La Son section, one of three state-funded sections of the North-South Expressway, is a key project for the Ministry of Transport this year. The other two are the Cao Bo-Mai Son Expressway in the north and My Thuan 2 Bridge in the south. Work is yet to commence on either.

Together, the 11 sections of the North-South Expressway will cost over VND118 trillion ($5.1 billion), of which VND55 trillion ($2.37 billion) will be funded by the state.

The 11 sections will stretch 654 kilometers from Nam Dinh Province near Hanoi to Vinh Long Province to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. They are part of the 2,000-kilometer long transnational expressway that is set to be finished by 2025.

The 98-kilometer Cam Lo-La Son section, which connects the central provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, will have four lanes with a width of 23 meters when finished in 2021. The expressway will allow speed up to 80 kilometers per hour.

It will run alongside the existing National Route 1A and be linked with another expressway to connect with other central localities, Da Nang City and Quang Ngai Province.

The project is one of three state-funded sections of the North South Expressway, a key project of the Ministry of Transport this year. The other two, whose construction is yet to begin, are Cao Bo-Mai Son Expressway in the north and My Thuan 2 Bridge in the south.

Together with eight other sections that will be invested in the form of public private partnership, the 11 sections of the North-South Expressway will cost over VND118 trillion ($5.1 billion) in total, of which VND55 trillion ($2.37 billion) will be funded by the state.

The sections will stretch 654 kilometers from Nam Dinh Province near Hanoi to Vinh Long Province to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

They are part of the ongoing 2,000-kilometer long transnational expressway, which is set to be finished by 2025.

Work on the six-lane Cat Lai Bridge, which will stretch 3.8 kilometers, is expected to start next year.

Residents today take the Cat Lai ferry to travel between District 2, HCMC, and Nhon Trach District in Dong Nai, but the ferry can no longer accommodate current travel needs.

Traffic on the highway that connects HCMC with the districts of Long Thanh and Dau Giay in Dong Nai Province is also exceeding its capacity.

Dong Nai hopes the Cat Lai Bridge will help turn Nhon Trach District into an extension of HCMC suburbs.

HCMC will handle the section of the road, 623 meters long in District 2, that will lead to the bridge, as a build-transfer (BT) project.

The main part of the bridge, of 650 meters, is set to be a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project executed by Dong Nai. If this doesn’t work out, the province will incorporate a build-transfer (BT) project. The southern province will also be in charge of the second section of the 263m long road in Nhon Trach that leads to the bridge.

On Monday spokespersons of five of its subsidiaries announced they had sold 6.31 million shares in Coteccons and were no longer a major shareholder. The fund’s holdings have shrunk from 10.31 percent to 2.05 percent following the sale on August 6.

Coteccons reported a second quarter pre-tax profit of VND156 billion ($6.72 million), down 71 percent year-on-year, the third consecutive quarterly decline and the lowest profit figure in the last four years.

Since 2018 the rising cost of construction materials and increasing competition have squeezed margins, the company management explained in the latest half-yearly report.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the company’s shares closed Monday 3.1 percent down at VND102,000 ($4.4), down 36.3 percent from VND160,000 ($6.9) at the beginning of this year and down 55.7 percent from its VND230,000 ($9.9) peak in early 2018.

Korea Investment Management entered Vietnam in 2006, and has stakes in blue chips such as Vinamilk, Vietnam’s biggest dairy company, and steel giant Hoa Phat