(VOV) - Two major Japanese banks will provide preferential credit for the Hanoi-Haiphong Expressway project under an agreement signed in Tokyo on February 22.
Signatories to the document included representatives from the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB), and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Citibank Japan.
Accordingly, SMBC and Citibank will provide VDB with US$270 million to finance the contract packages No 3 and 8 of the project at preferential interest rates.
The period for this loan is 15 years, with a grace period of 4.5 years.
Participants at the signing ceremony agreed that this expressway will play a significant role in boosting the economy of Vietnam’s northern delta. This project is also important to Japan, as it has more than 200 businesses operating along this route.
According to VDB, the Hanoi-Haiphong Expressway is the first in Vietnam to be built to international technical standards. It measures 105.5km in length and 33m in width on average, allowing a maximum speed of 120km per hour.
The project has been undertaken in the form of build-operate-transfer since 2008.