The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed Thursday a US$1.38 billion financial assistance package to enhance Vietnam’s nationwide clean water access, conserve threatened forests, and ease urban gridlock.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung witnessed the signing in Hanoi between ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Giau.
Mr. Kuroda is in the Vietnamese capital for the 44th ADB annual meeting that takes place from May 3 to May 6.
The total cost of the three development projects is almost US$4.5 billion, ADB said.
“ADB’s assistance will help ensure that more people in Vietnam have access to clean water, more livable cities, and biologically diverse forests that will be preserved for future generations,” said Mr. Kuroda.
A US$1 billion financial support facility from ADB will help improve clean water access for three million families in the country’s cities, including half a million poor households who will receive their own piped water connection for the first time. The assistance is part of a larger $2.8 billion investment program, according to the bank.
A US$30 million loan from ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund will enhance cross-border cooperation in protecting a contiguous stretch of biodiversity-rich forest in the country’s Central Annamites, which spans the highlands of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam Provinces, the bank said.
This is part of a larger program that is also supporting the preservation of key forestlands in Cambodia and Laos. The assistance package for Vietnam includes about US$8 million to improve clean water and sanitation services and upgrade market roads in the 34 largely ethnic minority communes in the project area.
“Sustainable economic development and environmental preservation are intertwined,” said Mr. Kuroda. “In the long term, coupling conservation and livelihood improvements will help ensure that Vietnam’s forests and their biodiversity are managed well.”
The third component of the assistance is a US$350 million loan, which is the first tranche of an overall $636 million ADB package. This package is supporting a $1.6 billion project to construct a modern expressway to the south of congested Ho Chi Minh City.
With the city’s population expected to swell by more than 50% by 2025, new roads are needed to complement other modes of transportation, including an ADB-supported metro rail system, to ensure the efficient transportation of goods and people, the bank said.
The 57-kilometer expressway between Ben Luc in Long An Province and Long Thanh in Dong Nai Province will reduce traffic in the heart of the mega city by allowing vehicles traveling from east to west to bypass the city center.
When the full expressway opens in 2017, it is expected to reduce east-west travel time by 80% and cut the number of traffic accidents by 10%, according to ADB.
