The Vĩnh Tế Canal (,《國朝正編撮要·卷之二》：浚朱篤江道，通于河仙，賜名永濟河。 or ) is an canal in southern Vietnam, designed to give the territory of Châu Đốc a direct access to the Hà Tiên sea gate, Gulf of Siam.
Background Construction of the Vĩnh Tế Canal began in 1819, during the Nguyễn dynasty, a period that saw significant expansion and consolidation of the Vietnamese state during Trịnh and Nguyễn lords era. In particular, the Khmer regions of Siem Reap, Battambang, the Cardamom Mountains, the southern coast, and Hà Tiên were sites of contestation for both Siamese and Vietnamese rule.
After the construction of Thoại Hà Canal, Emperor Gia Long of Nguyễn dynasty ordered the mandarin Nguyễn Văn Thoại to dig a new canal along the today Cambodian–Vietnamese border. The emperor's edict said: "this canal-digging project is tough, but its role in [our] national security and national defense is not small, we should accept the hardship so that our descendants would have the benefit".《國朝正編撮要·卷之二》：帝嘉悅，詔諭永清民曰：「此河開鑿，工役至艱。國計邊籌，所開□細。爾等雖有今日之勞，而寔有萬世之利。其各胥相報告，毋憚勞焉。」
Alongside other canals constructed in the early nineteenth century, the Vĩnh Tế Canal facilitated the advancement of the Vietnamese state into the Kampuchea Krom region of the Khmer world through both infrastructural and defense support.
Construction The construction of the canal was started in the end of 1819. The project used about 80,000 local Vietnamese and Khmer workers. After the death of Emperor Gia Long, the succeeding Emperor Minh Mạng continued the project.
When the construction was completed in 1824, Emperor Minh Mạng named the canal after Châu Vĩnh Tế, the wife of its builder Nguyen Van Thoai. Historian David Biggs suggests that the naming of the canal sought to honor her for "[arranging] aid for and [consoling] loved ones of workers killed by disease and fighting" resulting from its construction.
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