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

The roads, apart from facilitating the defence of national sovereigntyand ensuring security along the shared border, have contributed topromoting socio-economic development in border localities, MajorGeneral Hoang Kien, Director of the Border Patrol Road ProjectManagement Board said in a press briefing on the project in Hanoi onMarch 11.

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

According to a plan on the building of border patrol roads for the2006-2010 period and the following years approved by the PrimeMinister, a total of 10,196 km of patrol roads are planned to be builtin 25 provinces which share land borders with the neighbouringcountries of China , Laos and Cambodia .

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

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

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