"Most of these roads are narrow and need to be widened for better goods transport and socio-economic development," Nguyen Hoai Trung, deputy director of the province's Department of Transport, said on Monday.

The work, to be carried out jointly, will see roads with a width of 18-22 meters and four lanes widened to 40 m and six lanes.

The upgrade of the roads will start in 2021 and is expected to take four years.

After that the two will upgrade another 16 roads.

They have also agreed to build a new 8.6-km road between Binh Chanh District in HCMC and Can Giuoc District at a cost of VND4.3 trillion ($186 million).

Long An recently built a 7.5-km road to the northwestern part of HCMC at VND6.4 trillion ($276.57 million).

HCMC plans to extend the arterial Vo Van Kiet Road to provincial roads 822, 823, 823B, and 825 in Long An's Duc Hoa District at a cost of VND3.3 trillion ($142.87 million).

Transport between the city and the Mekong Delta, the country's agricultural hub, is limited. There's only one expressway, and that too has been damaged in many places after being used for 10 years.