Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s approval to open up state coffers for building the My Thuan-Can Tho Expressway is a significant shift from the original plan to source private funds.

The 23-kilometer expressway will run from the My Thuan Bridge 2 in Tien Giang Province with Can Tho City. The bridge is under construction.

When complete, the My Thuan-Can Tho section will be linked with the North-South Expressway to improve links between HCMC and the Mekong Delta, which comprises 13 localities.

Construction of this section will cost VND4.9 trillion ($208 million). It will have four lanes allowing speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour.

PM Phuc has also okayed the use of public funds for eight sections of the North South Expressway and ordered that work on all of them begins by August at the latest.

Work is already ongoing on the other three sections of the North-South Expressway.

Last year, the Transport Ministry had tried to find foreign investors for the eight projects, but few passed the qualification round, which meant low competition between bidders.

The ministry then decided that only domestic investors would be allowed in these projects to "ensure national security and expand Vietnamese firms’ capability in constructing infrastructure."