Total official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam is likely to rise JPY200 billion ($2.56 billion) in the 2011 fiscal year, up JPY50 billion compared to the previous fiscal year. Vice President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Izumi Arai released the information at a meeting with Vietnam Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue in Tokyo on Nov 2. To prepare for the signing of loans agreements for seven other projects in Vietnam in the second half of the 2011 fiscal year, a Japanese governmental delegation will visit Vietnam in mid-Nov. At the meeting, Arai said apart from the assistance in building infrastructure, Japan is ready to cooperate in improving policies and mechanisms and in human resource training, to serve Vietnam’s economic development. Earlier, Minister Hue and Vice President Arai signed loan agreements for six important projects worth $1.2 billion. They included the Lach Huyen deepwater port development project, the North-South Highway construction project at the Ben Luc-Long Thanh section, the Nghi Son thermo-electric power plant, a program to cope with climate change, and a satellite observation project to monitor disasters and climate change. With the new funding, total Japanese ODA for Vietnam is expected to hit JPY1.778 trillion ($22.74 billion) so far. Japan remained the biggest bilateral donor in Vietnam to date. (vietnamplus.vn Nov 2)
