Vietnam asks Sweden for help in fighting corruption
STOCKHOLM - The Vietnamese government has asked Sweden to
help weed out corruption that has caused a scandal in the Asian nation's ruling
communist party, a Swedish development agency said Thursday.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, usually called
SIDA, said it was asked to conduct an 8 million kronor (dlrs 840,000) study of
corruption in national and local government.
The government agency, which administers Sweden's foreign aid, said it is
willing to help if Vietnam meets such terms as making the findings public, SIDA
spokeswoman Anette Widholm said.
A spokesman for Vietnam's Embassy in Stockholm, Pham Van Hanh, said
Hanoi had not informed him of the request, but said fighting corruption is a top
priority for the government.
"Corruption in Vietnam is on different levels, but primarily on the local level,"
Hanh said. "Officials in the provinces take bribes or use their position when
handling public funds in different ways."
The ruling communist party has been shaken in recent months by a corruption
scandal in which scores of officials have been accused of receiving bribes from
an underworld gang.
Widholm said Sweden would provide 6.5 million kronor (dlrs 680,000) to fund
the study and the Vietnamese government would put up the remaining 1.5
million kronor (dlrs 160,000).
She said SIDA received the request early this year, and predicted the contract
would be finalized before year's end. The request had not been reported in
Sweden until Thursday.
"Why did they ask us? I guess it has to do with trust in Sweden," Widholm
said. "This is in line with the support that Sweden has been providing before."
Vietnam is the fourth largest recipient of Swedish foreign aid. In 2001, Sweden
gave 360 million kronor (dlrs 40 million) to the southeast Asian country, much of
it to improve infrastructure and public administration.
The Associated Press - July 25, 2002.
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