The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a soft loan of $60 million to support Vietnam’s Secondary Education Sector Development Program (SESPD). ADB Country Director in Vietnam Ayumi Konishi and the State Bank of Vietnam’s Governor Nguyen Van Giau signed an agreement on the issue in Hanoi on Dec 22, the Tien Phong newspaper reported Wednesday. Under the agreement, the ADB will provide $60 million to the program and the Vietnamese government will contribute the remaining $11 million in reciprocal capital. The program aims to support the country’s secondary education reform to meet the changing needs of Vietnam’s labor market as it becomes a middle income country. The ADB loan has a term of 32 years, including an eight-year grace period. The Ministry of Education and Training is assigned to implement the project, which is due for completion in June 2015.
