The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday it agreed a US$1 million technical assistance grant to help to increase efficiency in road transport administration and attract investment in Vietnam’s rapidly expanding road transport network.
The grant, sourced from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction and funded by the Government of Japan, will provide the Ministry of Transport and its support agencies with guidelines to strengthen institutional and financial arrangements, operation and maintenance, and governance.
A plan for the long- and medium-term institutional enhancement for the Vietnam Expressway Management Administration will be developed, and real-time advisory support to Ministry of Transport officials will be provided, ADB said.
Funding for road projects will be improved through the technical assistance grant, the bank said.
An assessment will be made on how to fund the country’s North-South Expressway Project, a massive road development project estimated to cost $17.9 billion and covering 1,811 kilometers of expressway stretching from Hanoi in the north to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta.
ADB said the grant would come up with guidelines to improve the cost effectiveness of road projects by reducing life-cycle costs and enhancing the sustainability of expressways, and national and local roads.
Guidelines will also be developed to strengthen governance of state-owned enterprises under the Ministry of Transport involved in ADB-financed projects.
The Vietnamese government will contribute US$150,000 equivalent toward the technical assistance’s estimated total cost of US$1.15 million. The Ministry of Transport is the executing agency for the TA, which is due for completion around August 2011.
