Greater Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is Viet Nam’s largest city and economic hub. At appraisal, road networks within and around it were becoming heavily congested, with decreasing travel speeds and increasing transport costs. To provide relief for the city roads connecting HCMC’s center and port area with central and northern Viet Nam, the government identified the need for the project expressway, which would also serve as a key link to the planned interconnected expressway network and ring roads around HCMC. The interconnected network of high-capacity and high-speed expressways, envisaged under the Expressway Master Plan developed by the government with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was intended to complement the existing network of national, provincial, and city roads in facilitating the country’s rapid socioeconomic development.
Approved by ADB in September 2008 for a loan of $410.2 million, the Ho Chi Minh City–Long Thanh–Dau Giay Expressway Construction Project, aimed to build approximately 51 kilometers (km) of four-lane, tolled expressway, directly connecting the center of HCMC to economic growth areas in the provinces north of the city. Its expected impact was business-led, pro-poor, sustainable economic growth in the HCMC and neighboring provinces. Its outcome would allow transport users from HCMC and Dong Nai province to travel from District 9 of HCMC to Dau Giay town with lower transport costs and less time.
At completion, the project constructed and opened a good quality expressway of 55 km with four lanes, operated by the VEC-E, a joint stock company established in 2012 by the state-owned Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), with 51% share from the VEC and 49% share from two private companies. The project expressway is in an important section of the transport corridor connecting HCMC and Dau Giay and part of the Southern Focal Economic Area, a key industrial developing area in southern Viet Nam. It has generated substantial socioeconomic benefits during and after implementation.
According to VEC traffic counts, actual traffic on the two sections of the project expressway increased by 13.1%−14.6% in 2018. Travel time dropped by at least 50%, from 90 minutes to 45 minutes. The vehicle operation cost fell by 30% on average. Traffic congestion on the parallel highway has also been substantially alleviated.
Overall, the operation of the expressway has supported HCMC port exports and spurred faster socioeconomic development in the project areas. Between 2012 and 2017, the monthly average income per capita had risen by 9% per year for HCMC and 17% per year for Dong Nai province. Gross domestic product per capita reached $6,119 for HCMC, an increase of 8.5%, and $4,545 for Dong Nai Province, an increase of 9%. Poverty rates fell from 0.3% to 0.01% for HCMC and from 3.7% to 1.2% for Dong Nai province. The number of businesses increased by 50% for HCMC and 23% for Dong Nai Province.
By improving the connectivity and transport conditions in the project areas, the expressway also supported greater cross-border trade and economic cooperation in Greater Mekong Subregion The export value at HCMC port increased about 700 times in 2010–2014, growing by an average of 35.2% per annum during the period.
The VEC was the project executing agency. It established a Southern Expressway Project Management Unit to oversee day-to-day implementation.
