Japan will provide more official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam’s biggest city of Ho Chi Minh in the coming years, Tadashi Maeda, Senior Advisor of the Japan Cabinet said. Mr. Maeda, also Managing Executive Officer and Global Head of Infrastructure Finance Group based in Tokyo, made the statement at a meeting with Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee in the city on July 12. At the meeting, Mr. Maeda also discussed ways to distribute and use Japanese ODA effectively. For his part, Mr. Quan spoke highly of Japan’s ODA and affirmed that Vietnam will use loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) effectively. Mr. Quan expressed his thanks to Japan for its assistance which has contributed to the development of Vietnam and HCM City in particular. The Japanese government provided a total of $32.47 million in non-refundable loan for 434 development projects in Vietnam since its resume providing ODA for the Southeast Asian nation to end-2011. Japan pledges a total of $23 billion in ODA for Vietnam since 1992. In Japanese fiscal year 2011, Japan provided JPY270 billion ($3.4 billion) of ODA to 16 projects in Vietnam, a record high. (vietnamplus.vn Jul 13, http://www.voh.com.vn [1] Jul 12)
