TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo: 6502) today joined the opening ceremony hosted by Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), as a main contractor, in marking the start of operation of a new Traffic Control and Operation Management Office serving a major section of Vietnam’s backbone highway, the North-South Expressway. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Truong Quang Nghia, Vietnam’s Minister of Transport, and Mr. Tran Quoc Viet, the Chairman of VEC.

A consortium of Toshiba and two other Japanese companies is providing VEC with a comprehensive Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), including Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), traffic control and monitoring systems, under a 2014 contract. The contract scope covers the 55-kilometers from Ho Chi Minh to Dau Giay, one of the most travelled sections of the North-South Expressway, which is still under construction and Toshiba is providing equipment and systems. Today’s ceremony celebrated the start of official operation of the traffic control center, which will monitor and manage traffic conditions.

Economic growth and modernization are feeding more and more vehicles onto Vietnam’s roads, especially in southern Vietnam and in and around Ho Chi Minh City. Traffic congestion is growing apace, and is now a serious problem—the Ho Chi Minh to Dau Giay section of the North-South Expressway partially opened in January 2014, and has already been travelled by over 30 million vehicles, with more growth anticipated. Deployment of the ITS package is expected to improve traffic flows and alleviate congestion along the section.

The Vietnamese government is supporting future economic growth and development with a highway master plan for the construction of 22 expressways with a total length of approximately 6,000km. The centerpiece is the North-South Expressway, scheduled for completion in 2020, which will run almost the length of the country, close to 2,000 kilometers, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi via Da Nang.

Toshiba will continue to contribute to Vietnam’s economic growth and prosperity by proposing ITS solutions, including advanced traffic monitoring and control and ETC systems.