The
signatories were Nguyen Van Binh, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam,
and Axel Van Trotsenburg, WB Vice President for East Asia and Pacific.
The four projects include the one on sustainable
agriculture shifting worth 238 million USD, which will help implement a
restructuring plan of the agricultural sector through intensifying the
sector’s institutional capacity, renovating methods of cultivation and
increasing the value chain for rice farming in the Mekong Delta and
coffee planting in the Central Highlands. Around 140,000 rice farming
households and 63,000 coffee growing households are expected to benefit
from the project.
Another aid worth 45 million USD for
the livestock competitiveness and food safety will continue increasing
the competitiveness of livestock breeding households by improving the
productivity and food safety and reducing environmental pollution. The
project will be carried out in 12 provinces and cities across the
country and benefit about 24,000 households.
An additional
aid will be provided for the second phase of the poverty reduction
project in the northern mountainous region, which will target 259 poor
communes in Hoa Binh, Lao Cai, Son La, Yen Bai, Lai Chau and Dien Bien
provinces.
Meanwhile, a 124-million-USD project to
develop green transport in Ho Chi Minh City is expected to develop and
increase the efficiency of public transport system in order to better
urban planning, protect the environment and improve the living standard
of people in the city. The money will be invested in building a
23km-long express bus route and facilities along the route.
The
WB Vice President highlighted the significance of the projects,
affirming that the WB continually supports Vietnam in its development
process.
Vietnam is one of the countries receiving
most from the bank’s International Development Association (IDA), he
said, adding that the WB wishes to continue its contributions to poverty
reduction and sustainable development in the country, and is willing to
share experience with the country during the development process.
On the same day, the Party leader visited the Vietnamese Embassy in
the US, during which he emphasised the historic significance of his
official US visit and said that the outcomes of the visit will help
realise the Party’s and State’s foreign policy of peace, independence,
self-reliance, diversification and multi-lateralisation of the country’s
external relations, and contribute to increasing the role and position
of Vietnam in the international arena and affirming the leadership of
the Communist Party of Vietnam.
He asked embassy staff
to do their utmost to further deepen the Vietnam-US strategic
partnership in order to create a strategic posture on diplomacy with big
and important partners.
The Party chief, then, left Washington D.C. for New York, continuing his official visit to the US./.
