Vietnam’s Ministry of Construction has begun a project on upgrading urban areas in the Mekong Delta with $294.5 million funded by the World Bank (WB), the state-run Vietnam News Agency said. The $398 million project Mekong Delta Region – Urban Upgrading Planning (MDR-UUP) to be conducted between August 2012 and December 2017 is aimed to improve living conditions of residents in six cities namely Can Tho city, My Tho city in Tien Giang province, Ca Mau in Ca Mau province, Cao Lanh in Dong Thap province, Rach Gia in Kien Giang province and Tra Vinh city in Tra Vinh province. MDR-UUP will focus on six criteria including upgrading bad infrastructure systems, building resettlement areas for residents along ditch sides and unsafe areas, giving loans for upgrading houses, improving management capacity on housing, land and urban areas. Its priorities will include building constructions including roads, water supply and solid waste recycle systems to serve locals’ daily life. MDR-UUP is within Vietnam’s National Urban Upgrading Program (NUUP) by 2020 is expected to serve directly around 276,000 residents in 110 areas of economic difficulties in six localities and to roughly 1.6 million people in the region in overall. Vietnam is facing with many thorny problems resulting from the rapid urbanization with flows of migrants to big cities due to the concentration of socio-economic, political, educational and cultural institutions together with the establishment of industrial parks. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times June 26 p3, Vietnamplus June 25)
