~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Hanoi cuts back second national highway plan

HANOI - Vietnam has slashed the budget for a controversial 1,800 km (1,100 mile) highway planned to upgrade links between the north and south of the country, the official news agency said on Friday.

The official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Friday that planned spending would be cut by 75 percent, from $1.47 billion to $372 million.

VNA did not make clear whether these outlays applied only to government expenditure, but added that official development assistance funds would be used for the project.

The north-south expressway was first announced by former premier Vo Van Kiet last year. However, there had been some speculation earlier this year that the project had been put on hold because of the communist country's economic difficulties.

The plan calls for vast labour teams comprising youth volunteers and national service conscripts to carve out a route through jungle and mountains down the country's sparsely populated western spine. The project is expected to begin in 2001.

Both Vietnamese and foreign economists have criticised Kiet's proposal to expand a largely inactive compulsory labour scheme for the project.

Vietnam's main existing north-south artery, National Highway One, remains a bumpy narrow road along the central coast. A single gauge rail line also links Hanoi and southern Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.
Both routes are frequently severed when storms hit.

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Japan have been funding upgrade work on Highway One.

Reuters - October 16, 1998.