Vietnam Construction Ministry Inspects $70M Japan-funded Transport Project

Vietnam’s Ministry of Construction has started the inspection of a $70 million national road safety improvement project, of which $65 million is from Japan’s official development assistance (ODA). The project aiming to reduce the number of traffic accidents on 21 national roads was kicked off in 2009 by the Ministry of Transport. The move aims to raise the efficiency of ODA usage. It follows corruption found in Japan-funded projects in which Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc. (JTC) admitted to having bribed Vietnamese officials roughly JPY80 million ($780,000) for a JPY4.2 billion ODA-funded project at Vietnam Railways Corporation. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has issued a decision on setting up a state-owned council in charge of assessing construction projects in its efforts to raise the quality of the projects after many shortcomings have been found in some transport works. (Dau Tu – Investment May 9 p2)