Vietnam Thursday signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a financial assistance package worth $1.38 billion for water, environment and transport projects, state media reported May 6. The agreement was signed by Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau and ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda in Hanoi on May 5 during the ADB's annual meeting that will last through Friday. The first loan worth around $1 billion will help improve clean water access for three million households in Vietnam’s cities, of which half a million poor families will receive piped water for the first time. Another loan of $350 million is part of a total $636 million assistance package. The money will be invested in a $1.6 billion-project to building a modern expressway in Ho Chi Minh City. The rest loan worth $30 million will further strengthen trans-national cooperation in protecting biologically diverse forests in Vietnam’s central region, which consists of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam provinces. Vietnam has had about 100 projects and programs using capital from ADB with a total capital of nearly $10 billion, of which, signed projects reached about $6 billion during 18 years. The Philippines-based lender will arrange loans worth $1.3 billion for the Southeast Asian country in the coming years and speed up the public-private partnership (PPP) model. (Kinh te Vietnam & The gioi – Vietnam & World Economy May 6 p6, Tuoi tre – Youth May 6 p16, news.gov.vn May 5)
