Sweden will finalize providing official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam from late 2013, the country’s embassy office in Vietnam said. In fact, plans for stopping ODA to Vietnam was launched in 2007. At that time, the government decided that the package of bilateral assistance to Vietnam will end in Dec 2013. Sweden said that development assistance funds should be focused for the world’s poorest countries. Meanwhile, Vietnam has now become the national average income. Sweden is one of the Western nations providing aid to Vietnam earliest, beginning in 1969. For over 40 years of cooperation, Sweden provided $3.46 billion in non-refundable aid by the year 2008. In the first stage, support from the Swedish development mainly focused on humanitarian assistance and infrastructure. The following years, the funding primarily went to research institutions, the reform, the poverty alleviation, environmental policy, health care and other fields. Sweden-funded projects included Swedish Hospital in Hanoi, Uong Bi Hospital, Bai Bang Paper Mill and others in health, energy, forestry, rural development in five mountainous northern provinces. (vnexpress.net Apr 20)
