Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a VND1.39 trillion ($72.79 million) project to improve the quality of hydro-meteorological forecasts from now up to 2012, the government said on its website July 1. Of the total, nearly VND634 billion will be spent on modernizing the hydro-meteorological observation systems, VND294 billion on building database and improving information provision system. The rest will be used to upgrade hydro-meteorological forecasting technology and building additional observation center with a total area of 20,200 square meters. The communist government’s move aims to make best preparations to cope with natural disasters which become more and more frequent and severe in the Southeast Asian nation. Vietnam is one out of 10 most vulnerable countries by natural disasters, particularly tropical storms, floods, landslides and droughts. The calamities left 500 dead and missing in Vietnam and caused losses of VND23 trillion ($1.2 billion), equaling to 2% of the country’s GDP in 2009.
