World Bank approves $110m Vietnam poverty project
HANOI: The World Bank said yesterday it will provide
$110 million in credit for a new project in Vietnam aimed
at reducing poverty in northern mountainous areas.
The World Bank said the credit will help build
infrastructure and provide basic education and health care
for about one million people, 85 per cent of whom are
ethnic minorities, in six northern provinces, the poorest
region of Vietnam.
The credit will be made available as a concessional
40-year loan with a 10-year grace period and the project
would last through 2007.
Co-financed by the British Department for International
Development, the bank's Northern Mountainous
Poverty Reduction project would invest in rural roads and
markets, irrigation and water supply and community
development, the statement said.
It said the project was approved by the bank's
Executive Board in Washington on Thursday and built on
experience from other poverty projects funded by donors
and itself in China, Indonesia and other regions in Vietnam.
The statement said Vietnamese ethnic minorities have
inadequate access to land, water, agricultural support
services, and limited educational attainment. They suffer
from poor health and women face a heavy workload, it
added.
Some 30 million people or around 37 per cent of
Vietnam's population live in poverty, it said.
On october 16, The World Bank revised downward Vietnam's gross domestic product growth this year to 4.9 percent from a previous 5.5 percent. The iMF has also reestimated Vietnam's GDP growth this year at 4.7 percent from a forecast of 5.0 percent it made in april. Last month Hanoi forecasts its GDP of 7.1 percent for 2001, below a growth target initially of 7.5 percent, citing the world economy slowdown.
Reuters - October 27, 2001.
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