PM Pham Minh Chinh (10th from left) and officials cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Phan Thiet - Dau Giay and Mai Son - National Highway 45 sections at the ceremony in Binh Thuan province on April 29. (Photo: VNA)

The inauguration ceremony of the Phan Thiet - Dau Giay section was held in the south-central province of Binh Thuan in the presence of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

The event for the Mai Son - National Highway 45 one took place in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa and was attended by Deputy PM Tran Hong Ha. The two events were connected via videoconference.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the Mai Son - National Highway 45 section is 63.37km long in total, including 14.35km in northern Ninh Binh province and 49.02km in Thanh Hoa, and invested with over 12 trillion VND (511.4 million USD). It had construction started in September 2020 and was technically opened to traffic in December 2022.

The 99km-long Phan Thiet - Dau Giay section, traversing Binh Thuan and southern Dong Nai province, has total investment of more than 12.5 trillion VND. This project also kicked off in September 2020.

In his speech, PM Chinh stressed that developing infrastructure, especially transport one, is a strategic breakthrough identified by the Party and State.

Vietnam targets 3,000km and 5,000km of expressways by 2025 and 2030, respectively. Meanwhile, only about 1,000km was built between 2000 and 2020. Therefore, the remaining workload is extremely heavy, he pointed out.

PM Pham Minh Chinh addresses the inauguration ceremony in Binh Thuan province on April 29. (Photo: VNA)

As the North - South corridor always plays a critically important role as it serves as the economic and transport artery of the country, the eastern North - South Expressway with the total length of 2,063km was planned to create momentum for localities along this corridor to make breakthroughs and tap into their potential and advantages.

The expressway, starting in the northern border province of Lang Son and ending in the southernmost province of Ca Mau, will run through 32 provinces and cities. With the inauguration of the two new sections, 800km of this road has been put into use so far, he noted.

The Government leader applauded the strong determination and efforts by the transport sector, ministries, central agencies, localities, as well as affected residents to overcome difficulties to put the two projects into operation.

He also highlighted the importance of the Mai Son - National Highway 45 and Phan Thiet - Dau Giay sections to socio-economic development in Binh Thuan, Dong Nai, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, nearby localities, and the country as a whole.

Also on April 29, PM Chinh inspected the construction progress of the Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet section of the eastern North - South Expressway. The over-100km section in Binh Thuan province is invested with nearly 11 trillion VND and had its work started in November 2020.