Vietnam Starts $100M WB-funded Project to Improve Governmentt Agencies Capacity

Vietnam will start a $100-million project funded the World Bank (WB) to increase capacity of government agencies in facilitating public investments today [Oct 13], the Dau tu newspaper reported Oct 13.
The project, which is slated for completion in 2015, will give supports to these agencies to make plans and prepare for public investments. It also will help to improve quality of inflow and shorten time of project preparation. Raising the speed and quality of project preparation will help facilitate project starts-up and disbursements, and bring socio-economic benefits to recipients, Deputy Director General of Foreign Economic Relations Department Hoang Viet Khang said. The WB provided a total aid of $10.4 billion for 93 programs and projects in the Southeast Asian country by late February this year, and $6.7 billion of which was disbursed. The bank pledged $2.498 billion in official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam this year and also announced to finance over $6 billion for the country to implement 44 programs and projects in the 2011-2013 fiscal years. (Dau tu – Investment Oct 13 p1)