The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to increase loans to Vietnam to $2 billion in the coming years, President Haruhiko Kuroda said at a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi on Feb 28. Apart from assistance and cooperation in infrastructure development, the ADB wants to cooperate in education with the Southeast Asian country, Kuroda noted. The ADB President highly valued the Vietnamese government’s measures to curb inflation, affirming that they are effective and appropriate with the current situation. In addition to inflation, the gap between the rich and poor is a challenge for the Vietnam. Solving the issue along with rapid economic growth and climate change response has challenged the country, he added. Besides infrastructure improvement, Vietnam needs to have abundant high-quality human resources in the long term, Kuroda highlighted. The ADB President also expressed pleasure with Vietnam hosting the upcoming ADB meeting, saying that this is an opportunity to showcase its potential for development. Through the meeting, ADB’s 66 member countries can witness Vietnam’s strong development and take opportunity to promote cooperation with the country, the official stressed. For his part, Dung said that Vietnam always treasures contributions made by ADB to its development and wants to expand the scale of cooperation with the financial institutions, affirming that Vietnam uses effectively use ADB loans. Vietnam has exerted efforts to improve infrastructure, step up human resource training, focus on sustainable development along with building an equal society and speed up poverty reduction and environmental protection. (Tin tuc – News Mar 01 p2, Phap luat TpHCM – HCM City Law Mar 01 p2, www.vietnamplus.vn [1] Feb 28)
