Vietnam is all set to build a high-speed rail network that will curtail the travel time from the capital Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south to less than five hours from the current 30 hours or more.

This was announced by Vietnamese government on Saturday, saying that it will invest USD 67 billion in building the 1,500-km-long network that will connect the two of its biggest metropolises.

“The national assembly voted to approve a resolution on investment policies for the high-speed railway project on the north-south axis,” said a statement on the National Assembly’s website. The project is scheduled to take just eight years, beginning in 2027 and aiming for completion in 2035.

Besides easing movement of goods and people for business, the high-speed rail link will also promote tourism as the network will traverse almost the entire length of the country and ease movement of tourists between two of its biggest tourism hubs, which are booming.

In the first 10 months of 2024, over 14.1 million international tourists visited Vietnam, according to the latest report from the General Statistics Office (GSO), which says that favourable visa policies, stronger tourism promotion programmes, and winning several prestigious international tourism awards have all contributed to drawing more foreign visitors to the country.

In October 2024, international arrivals to Vietnam reached 1.42 million, a slight increase compared to the figure of 1.3 million in September and a 27.6 pc increase compared to the same period last year.

Asian markets contributed nearly 80 pc of the total arrivals and four markets, South Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan, accounted for nearly 60 pc. India is among the top 10 source markets for Vietnam, at 6th place.