Deputy Minister of Transport Tran Doan Tho announced the proposal at a signing ceremony for a cooperation agreement to develop highways between the Vietnam Express Development Company and the Global Petro Commercial Joint Stock Bank (GP Bank) last Saturday.

The two sides agreed to implement the agreement in two steps: first, to prepare an investment project to submit to the Government, and second, to establish a Build-Operate-Transfer Company to invest in the project.

An immediate target of the cooperation agreement is to complete the designing plan for the Cau Gie road in the northern province of Ninh Binh and to invest in its section linking Ninh Binh with the central province of Thanh Hoa and Vinh City in the central province of Nghe An.

The National Oil and Gas Group has an income of more than US$12.5 billion a year and is a strategic stockholder in GP Bank. General Director of the Vietnam Express Development Company Tran Xuan Sanh said the company has sofar invested US$2.5 billion in building 369 km of highways, including the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh, Noi Bai – Lao Cai and HCM City – Dau Giay projects.