The governments of Japan and France have provided a combined $134 million in official development assistance (ODA) for a support program to respond to climate change (SP-RCC) in Vietnam. Officials of the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the French Development Agency (AFD) signed agreements on the aid in Hanoi June 18. Of the sum, $110 million comes from the JICA and the rest from the AFD, the Thoi Bao Ngan Hang newspaper reported June 21. The SP-RCC is aimed at promoting the development of a legal framework to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in Vietnam, the newspaper added. Vietnam is listed among five hardest-hit countries by climate change. If sea level rises one meter, 5% of Vietnam’s land, 11% of its population and 7% of its agricultural land would be affected with the loss estimated at 10% of GDP. Vietnam is the second Asian country having get benefits from the SP-RCC after Indonesia.
