Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) May 5 signed a $1 billion agreement on improving and expanding local clean water supply networks from now till 2020, the Vietnamnet online newspaper reported May 5. The lending deal was inked by Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau and ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda during the ADB's annual meeting that will last through Friday in Hanoi. The funding will benefit more than three million local families, of which half a million poor households will get access to tap water for the first time. The project also aims to reduce the water leakage in urban areas to more than 20% by 2020 from 30% in 2009, bringing Vietnam’s cities in line with modern Asian cities like Seoul. Vietnam targets to hike the rate of its total population having clean water from the current 76% to 90% by 2020 and 100% by 2025. The Southeast Asian country has had about 100 projects and programs using loans from ADB with a total capital of nearly $10 billion, of which signed projects reached about $6 billion during 18 years. (vietnamnet.vn May 5, Kinh Te Vietnam& The Gioi – Vietnam & World Economy May 6 p6)
