The Asian Development Bank has approved a $100 million concessional loan to Vietnam to upgrade irrigation and drainage systems in the Red-Thai Binh River basin, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said. The loan will go to the construction of a campus for a Water Resources University (WRU), the only university in Vietnam to have a full program of subjects to educate water engineers. The loan will have a maturity of 32 years with a grace period of eight years and an interest rate of 1% every year during the grace period and 1.5% thereafter. Agence Française de Developpement will co-finance the project with a loan of EUR20 million euros. The government of Vietnam will provide counterpart financing of $51 million for the project.
