The Japanese government announced loans worth $500 million in official development assistance (ODA) to three development projects in Vietnam at the fifth meeting of the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee in Tokyo on Sept 12. The funding is under the first phase of the 2013 fiscal year, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, without specifying the names of the projects. During the meeting, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and his Japanese counterpart Kishida agreed to enhance the strategic partnership between the two countries and join hands in infrastructure projects in Vietnam. The two sides will build on the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative to improve Vietnam’s investment environment, especially in the context that Japan has become the largest investor in Vietnam with over 1,200 businesses operating in the country. The FMs also reached a consensus on many major orientations and concrete measures to drive the strategic partnership. Apart from economics, the two countries will cooperate in higher education in order to boost the training of young workers for the two countries, he said. They agreed to step up cooperation at regional forums and accelerate the process of regional economic connectivity through such tools as the Trans-Asia Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as well as the establishment of the ASEAN Community. Japan resumed providing ODA to Vietnam at the end of 1992 and is currently the Southeast Asian country’s largest ODA donor with over JPY2.118 trillion. Japanese ODA primarily poured in the fields of infrastructure development and climate change response. (vietnamplus.vn Sept 13, VnExpress.net Sept 14, Dau Tu – Investment Sept 16 p2)
