International Business

Vietnam Plans to Build Elevated Train System: The Southeast Asian country’s Transportation Ministry plans to start building a $839-million network of elevated trains in Hanoi to help ease the capital’s suffocating traffic problems, a ministry official said. The first section of track will cost about $464 million, with much of the money expected to come as aid from Germany. German and Vietnamese representatives will meet later this month to discuss the project, said the official, who works at the ministry’s Railways Research and Design Institute and spoke on condition of anonymity. A German diplomat based in Hanoi said Germany has not yet committed to pay for the mass transit system and does not plan to sign a formal aid agreement until March.