Vietnam's central province of Quang Binh and Savannakhet province of Laos agreed to boost cooperation in various areas during talks between Secretary of the Quang Binh Party Committee Vu Dai Thang and Bounchom Oubonpaseuth, Governor of the Lao province on August 29.

Measures to boost cooperative ties between Vietnam and the RoK in various fields, including trade and investment, were discussed at the a session held in Hanoi on October 23.

The tentative total investment for the North-South high-speed railway, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), is about 26 billion USD, 32.7 billion USD less than the previous proposal by the Ministry of Transport (MoT).