The northern province of Quang Ninh and the Central Highlands provinces of Kon Tum and Gia Lai are the first localities to complete roads for patrolling the shared border.

The roads, apart from facilitating the defence of national sovereignty and ensuring security along the shared border, have contributed to promoting socio-economic development in border localities, Major General Hoang Kien, Director of the Border Patrol Road Project Management Board said in a press briefing on the project in Hanoi on March 11.

According to Major General Hoang Kien from the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, which is the project investor, construction of patrol roads is being carried out as planned with quality ensured and the environment protected.

According to a plan on the building of border patrol roads for the 2006-2010 period and the following years approved by the Prime Minister, a total of 10,196 km of patrol roads are planned to be built in 25 provinces which share land borders with the neighbouring countries of China , Laos and Cambodia .

In the 2006-2010 period, 1,969 km of patrol roads are set to be built in 19 provinces along with the deployment of 32 projects to build 1,512 km of patrol roads in the Central Highlands , the north-western region and along the Vietnam-China border.

By 2012, a 250-km patrol road from Quang Ninh to Lang Son and a 970-km road from Kon Tum to Binh Phuoc will be put into use, according Kien.

In the 2011-2015 period, the project investor plans to construct new patrol roads and upgrade existing ones with a total length of 1,700 km in 18 provinces./.