Continue on path to economic reform, urges World Bank chief HANOI - World Bank President James Wolfensohn has urged Vietnam to keep up its economic reforms, according to a bank spokesman. Mr Wolfensohn, who arrived in Hanoi after a visit to Ho Chi Minh City, met with Vice-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to "discuss the government's long-term development strategy", the spokesman said. He then met with representatives of donor countries, non-governmental organisations and other economic players at a luncheon in the Vietnamese capital. Mr Wolfensohn "insisted on the need for Vietnam to pursue its reforms", said one diplomat from a donor country. "He also said the World Bank plans to take a new approach in its action in Vietnam by axing its programmes on the fight against poverty, decentralisation and access to new technology and information," the diplomat said. Vietnam launched its economic reforms known as doi moi in 1987 to open up the markets in the communist country to the outside world. However, the pace of reform has lagged despite initial investor enthusiasm, and the country remains one of the poorest in the world with an average per capita income of only US$300. Since the World Bank began its activities in Hanoi in 1993, it has pledged $2.4 billion in aid, with $1 billion already disbursed. Mr Wolfensohn, who began his four-day visit in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, has visited rural poverty-stricken zones in the south to show the bank's desire to focus aid programmes on reducing poverty and social problems. He was due to meet with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai yesterday, before talks today with several high-ranking officials from the ruling Communist Party and President Tran Duc Luong. He will also visit the Vietnam Development Centre, the leading computer and electronic facility in the country, which, it is hoped, will become an information source open to all, the bank said. The centre is largely funded by the bank. Two projects funded by the bank are due to be signed in the Vietnamese capital to develop mangrove sites in coastal areas and to improve the transport infrastructure in rural areas, before the World Bank chief leaves. Mr Wolfensohn, who is on his first visit to Vietnam since 1996, is accompanied by the bank's outgoing Asia-Pacific head, Jean-Michel Severino, incumbent Jamil Kassum and the Bank's vice-president in charge of external affairs Mats Karlsson. AFP - February 24, 2000.