Road 18B from Laos' southern Attopeu city to the Vietnam-Laos border was inaugurated on June 5.
The road was built at a cost of US$48 million in soft loans provided by the Vietnamese Government to the Lao Government.

At the inaugural ceremony held in Attopeu city of the southern Lao province of the same name, the 111km-long road linking Attopeu city and Bo Y border gate in the Vietnamese province of Kon Tum was handed over to Laos and opened to traffic by the project contractor, the Vietnamese Construction Joint Venture Corporation 18 (CEI-18).

The construction of the project, including three major bridges and 16 small and medium bridges, began in December 2001 and was completed on April 15, 2006.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan said that the Road 18B project will help promote co-operation between Laos and Vietnam, facilitate the transport of Lao goods to Vietnamese sea ports, and also form part of the East-West corridor within the cooperation programmes of the Mekong Sub-region and the development triangle of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Deputy PM Khoan said he believes that Road 18B will help develop the great potential of Laos' southern region as well as Vietnam's Central Highlands and central region, contributing to poverty reduction and  improving the living conditions of the local people.

Lao Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulit thanked the Vietnamese Party, Government and people for their financial assistance in the construction of the road, which, he added, will help facilitate Laos' socio-economic development, and increase transport, trade, tourism and exchange between the people of Laos and Vietnam.

Deputy PM Sisoulit said that over the past five years, Vietnam has provided Laos with VND590 billion grant aid. The two governments have also mapped out a cooperation strategy for the next five years, worth VND900 billion, for the implementation of six action plans on economic, cultural scientific and technical co-operation between the two countries in the 2006-2010 period.

The Lao Deputy PM said that Attapeu and other southern provinces of Laos gain opportunities for development as they benefit from new infrastructure facilities, including roads to the East Sea such as Road 18B.