$4M infrastructure projects proposed for Mekong Delta

Those projects are listed in a proposal submitted recently by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and authorities of 13 cities and provinces in the delta, Vietnam’s agriculture hub.

Among those projects are a coastal road running 415 kilometers through seven provinces at a cost of VND43 trillion and the second phase of an embankment project worth VND4.150 trillion in Vinh Long.

The remaining projects include building new roads and canals or upgrading existing ones in the region.

The proposal said the funding for these projects will include more than US$2.8 billion of foreign loans and VND28 trillion from Vietnam’s counterpart fund.

The Mekong Delta, covering 40,000 square kilometers (four million hectares), or 13% of the nation’s total area, is home to 17.5 million people, or 18% of the nation’s population.

For generations, the delta, which has 1.5 million hectares of land cultivating rice, has been the rice bowl of the nation.

A neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, the region accounts for half of the nation’s rice production, 95% of rice exports, 65% of aquaculture production, and 70% of fruit output.