The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam has proposed the Ministry of Transport approve the Vietnam Road Asset Management Project funded by the World Bank (WB) and Australia’s AusAid. The project costs $365.8 million with a $313.1 million loan from the WB and a $1.7 million grant from AusAid. The project is designed to upgrade three national highways and renovate bridges in the north. Developing infrastructure is Vietnam’s top priority to ease the current serious traffic jams, which mainly resulted from fast population growth and the increasing number of motorbikes. It spends 10% of its GDP on its infrastructure development projects annually but its infrastructure remains weak. Total bad debts at infrastructure projects in Vietnam amounted to VND91 trillion ($4.3 billion) by the end of 2011, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance (MoF). (Dau Tu – Investment Sept 27 p2)
