New National Highway 19

Road network development plan is one of five specialized transport plans (roads; inland waterways; airports, airports; seaports; railways).

According to the plan, the road system must ensure the connection between the national road system and the local road system, between dynamic regions and difficult areas, connection to transport hubs and overseas, especially connecting with transport hubs and infrastructure of other modes (railway stations, seaports, river ports, airports) effectively.

The road plan has been integrated and synchronized with the other four specialized transport master plans, thereby defining a list of priority projects for the national road system, a list of local road projects, and a list of national road projects which need to be given priority in the provincial planning to ensure connectivity, interconnection with the regional and national transport networks, and ensure investment efficiency.

In order to ensure flexibility, openness and initiative in investment, the master plan enables adjustment of the investment progress of the roads if the locality realizes the need for early investment and is able to arrange resources for implementation; or when the locality needs to widen the national highway through a planned urban area, capital source will be coordinated in which the central government invests in the planned proportion, the locality invests in the extension...

The master plan has proposed to select a list of priority projects on the principle that the projects ensure wide dissemination, being a driving force for regional or inter-regional development, and become effective in short term. Significantly, the plan sets priority for the period 2021-2030 with investment in expressways with large traffic capacity to establish an inter-regional highway network, the "backbone" of the national road system.

In particular, the North–South Expressway West, a number of expressways in the South, Central Highlands, Northern mountainous areas and urban belt routes in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh cities will be completed, with a specific goal that approximately 5,000 km of expressway will be put into operation by 2030, as the target set out by the 13th National Party Congress.