- French wanted to develop infrastructure projects to help transport goods for trade, more military garrisons and control the entire region.
- Construction of a trans Indo-China rail network that would link the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China had begun.
- The French built canals and drained lands in the Mekong delta to enhance cultivation. The extensive and massive system of irrigation works—canals and earthworks. Those were built with forced labour. This increased the rice production and strengthened the export of the rice in the international market.