Japanese citizens probe massive aid to Vietnam
HANOI - A team of Japanese citizens is in Vietnam to assess whether Japanese
taxpayers are getting their money's worth from their government's massive official development assistance
(ODA) programme with Hanoi.
The 10-person team, comprising members of the public sent by the government, arrived in Vietnam
at the weekend and would stay until Friday to assess projects ranging from primary schools to power
stations and port rehabilitation.
"Taking the economic situation in Japan into consideration, Japanese people think it necessary to
take advantage of the limited national budget in the most efficient and effective fashion," a statement from
the Japanese embassy said.
"Furthermore, they raise a question of whether or not the Japanese ODA projects seriously benefit
people in aided countries."
A Japanese diplomat said Japan's ODA assistance to Vietnam from 1992 up until last year totalled
735 billion yen or $6.8 billion, mostly in the form of soft loans.
The embassy statement said the citizens would report their findings to the Japanese government.
.The diplomat said all ODA recipients were now subject to such probes, which did not imply any
suspicion of misuse of funds. Japan has also been reviewing its aid to China as part of a broader effort to
make its aid strategy more efficient.
Earlier this week, the Japanese president of the Asian Development Bank, Tadao Chino, urged
Vietnam to continue with economic and administrative reforms to free up hundreds of millions of dollars of
backed up loans from his bank.
The ADB has pledged $1.8 billion of loans to Vietnam since it resumed lending to the country in
1993, but less than half has been disbursed as loan guidelines have not been met.
Reuters - October 12, 2000.
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