The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a soft loan of $60 million to carry out Vietnam’s Secondary Education Sector Development Program (SESPD) in the future, the Thoi Bao Ngan Hang newspaper reported March 3. This is part of the agreement signed by ADB Country Director in Vietnam Ayumi Konishi and the State Bank of Vietnam’s Governor Nguyen Van Giau in Hanoi in Dec of 2009 for the SESPD, and the Vietnamese government contributed the remaining $11 million. The program aims to improve the secondary education system to meet demands of the local labor market. The ADB loan has a term of 32 years, including an eight-year grace. The Ministry of Education and Training is the executing agency of the project, which is due for completion in June 2015.
