ADB Offers Vietnam Loans for Health, Irrigation Projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Vietnam have signed a US$160 million credit agreement and a US$11 million non-refundable grant to help Vietnam expand access to quality health services and improve irrigation infrastructure.

 

The programme will upgrade training facilities, provide training for ethnic minority health workers and facilitate the adoption of standard treatment and cost packages for health services provided to the Vietnamese people.

 

The ADB’s loan and the Australian Government’s grant will finance the Health Human Resources Sector Development Programme which deals with obstacles in health service delivery, especially the management of human and financial resources. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health will manage this programme, which is expected to be completed at the end of December 2015.

 

Another US$100 million loan was for the Strengthening Water Management and Irrigation Systems Rehabilitation Project. The project will repair the 50-year-old Bac Hung Hai irrigation and drainage system in northern provinces and build new training facilities at the University of Water Resources. The French Development Agency (AFD) will co-finance 20 million euro for this project, expected to be completed in June 2016, and the Vietnamese will provide US$51 million of reciprocal capital. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate this project.