Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City has allocated VND34.528 trillion ($1.67 billion) from Japanese official development assistance (ODA) for its infrastructure projects. The Dau tu newspaper cited Thai Van Re, director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment as saying that total disbursements of the projects were VND12.22 trillion late 2010. Re noted that the city’s departments and agencies will join hands to speed up disbursement progress for the projects, especially waste treatment and environment protection in the remaining months. Japan has committed to maintaining its ODA for Vietnam despite certain difficulties caused by earthquake and tsunami in March, as Vietnam is its important partner, Yasuaki said at a signing ceremony. Since its resumption of ODA to the Southeast Asian country in 1992, the island nation has always been Vietnam’s largest donor, with total assistance worth almost JPY1.68 trillion. (Dau tu – Investment Jul 11 p2)
