Vietnam will pour 24 trillion Vietnamese dong (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) into constructing its first expressway route linking Hanoi capital and northern Hai

Phong port city to facilitate investment and tourism, according to local newspaper Youth on Jan 9.

Construction of the 105.5-km route with six lanes, which allows vehicles to run at a speed of 120 km per hour, is scheduled to start in May and finish in 2011. The project will be implemented in the investment form of build-operate-transfer.

The project's investor is a local joint stock firm: Vietnam Infrastructure Development and Finance Investment Corporation. Funds for the project will come from bank loans.

To meet its demand for rapid and sustainable development, Vietnam is determined to synchronously develop infrastructure, including transport, information technology and electricity networks with a focus on xpressways, high-speed railways, subways, air routes, seaports and marine transport, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at a business oundtable between key cabinet members and international business leaders in Hanoi on Jan.8.