A total amount of 14.2 trillion VND (634 million USD) from government bonds, which is the remaining capital from expansion projects on National Highway 1A and Ho Chi Minh Highway passing through Central Highland region, will be used to construct 17 new projects and repair dozens of weak bridges on highways.

It is a part of State budget estimates in 2016 approved by the National Assembly.

As much as 1.6 trillion VND (73.2 million USD) will be spent on projects including constructing 13 bridges, adding four bridges crossing southern BinhThuan province and resettlement assistance for National Highway 1 expansion projects.

As many as 17 new projects will be implemented using the remaining 9.274 trillion VND (412.2 million USD).

A stretch of the Ho Chi Minh Highway running through Central Highland Dak Lak province

Nguyen Hoang, head of the transport ministry's Planning and Investment Department, said that the Ministry of Transport submitted a document to the Prime Minister on reallocation of the capital on February 3.

After the allocation, the capital is predicted to continue to reach a redundancy of about 3.811 trillion VND (169.4 million USD) to implement an additional 13 projects.

Transport Deputy Minister Nguyen Hong Truong assigned the Planning and Investment Department to submit a document and propose ratification of the general plan to Ministry of Science and Technology. It aims to accelerate the use of the capital and allow projects to be implemented in the first quarter of this year.

In a related development, transport ministry announced plans to carry out 23 transport public-private-partnership (PPP) projects this year. Total investment of the projects reaches up to 39.899 trillion VND (1.7 billion USD), with nearly 99 percent sourced from investors.

Truong asked the management board of PPP projects to finalise a list of PPP projects for all sectors in 2017 and the following years.

According to the management board, the transport ministry is supervising 80 PPP projects worth more than 223.670 trillion VND (9.7 billion USD). 33 projects have been put into operation and 47 others are being implemented.

Source: VNA