DANANG, Vietnam — As the East-West Economic Corridor nears completion, hope is mounting here that the 1,450-km highway will boost traffic and jump-start the economies it traverses, but Japanese companies have yet to warm to its potential.

At least one-third of the $1.7 billion project, which links Vietnam and Myanmar through Laos and Thailand, was funded by Japanese economic aid. The entire road, whose design was conceived in 1998 by the Asian Development Bank, will be completed in 2008.

The opening in December of the Second International Mekong River Bridge created a link along the road between Laos and Thailand, and this is already boosting cross-border traffic of people and goods.