World Bank chief visits rapid-growing Vietnam
HANOI - World Bank chief Robert Zoellick began a two-day visit to Vietnam on Monday to learn more about the challenges facing the fast-growing communist country.
Zoellick, making his first official overseas trip, is to tour several World Bank projects in Yen Bai province, one of the nation's poorest areas, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Hanoi.
He also was expected to meet with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and other key officials later Monday.
Zoellick recently replaced former bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned amid a furor over his handling of a bank pay package for his girlfriend.
Earlier this year, the bank described Vietnam as having the potential to be one of the great economic development success stories, and said it expected to provide it with more than US$800 million (€584 million) annually over the next five years in interest-free grants and loans.
However, the bank also warned that Vietnam faces challenges in realizing its goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2010.
Last year, Vietnam's economy grew by 8.2 percent, making it one of the world's fastest-growing countries.
"Vietnam is going to have to expand areas like the banking sector, some of the good governance, environment, social protection, some of the legal institutions," Zoellick said last month in Washington when he announced plans to visit Asia.
He attended an Asia Pacific finance ministers' meeting in Australia before visiting Cambodia. He is to visit Japan after leaving Vietnam on Tuesday.
The Associated Press - August 6, 2007.
World Bank chief praises Vietnam's war on poverty
HANOI - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday praised Vietnam as a "tremendous success story" in fighting poverty but said institutional reforms were needed as it seeks middle-income country status.
Zoellick, on his first Asia trip since taking office last month, vowed to push for additional bank lending to the communist country, which he said offered development lessons that could be applied elsewhere in the world.
Vietnam -- a low-income country of 84 million people that saw economic growth of 8.2 percent last year -- has been hailed for sharply reducing poverty from nearly 60 percent in the early 1990s to less than 20 percent now.
"One aspect that is particularly impressive is that, in addition to high growth, the government has tried to expand the benefits throughout the country, including the rural poor," said Zoellick after a trip to a countryside project.
But he also cautioned that Vietnam now "needs to build the institutions for the future," which included "improving governance, transparency, rule of law, financial systems."
Vietnam, a one-party communist state that joined the World Trade Organisation in January, has introduced scores of new laws to become WTO-compliant and is seeking to reform institutions such as the central bank.
But many foreign investors have complained of red tape, corruption and a lack of legal certainty and transparency in the rules for doing business.
Zoellick said he and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung discussed how the bank could help Hanoi become a middle-income country by 2010, with per capita gross domestic product of more than 1,000 dollars a year.
"This includes strengthening public institutions, helping social development, investing in infrastructure, building the private sector," said Zoellick, a former US trade representative.
"So when I go back to Washington I'm looking for ways that we can help put additional funding into Vietnam because I think it's a very good investment for the people of Vietnam and for the world in general," he said.
The World Bank in February said it planned to lend Vietnam at least four billion dollars over the next five years, but Zoellick said it could bring more loans and generate investments through its private sector arm.
The World Bank has also urged Vietnam to tackle corruption, a problem highlighted by a scandal in a transport ministry road-building unit known as Project Management Unit (PMU) 18, some of whose officials are now on trial.
The bureaucrats in PMU 18 -- which has received World Bank funds -- allegedly squandered money on football gambling and for private luxuries in a scandal that led the transport minister to resign last year.
A World Bank review found no evidence that any of its funds were misused but it revealed "shortcomings in transparency and accountability controls in PMU 18."
Zoellick said that "in the past we had some reports of possible corruption. We investigated it. We found problems but not specific corruption, and the government was very quick to try to act on it."
He added: "The government wants to root out corruption because they realise corruption steals from the people. I think they very wisely understand that it undermines confidence in the government."
Prime Minister Dung thanked the World Bank for its help in infrastructure development, the education sector, social development, policy advice, environmental protection and sustainable development.
"The World Bank and Vietnam should become a model of cooperation for development," he said after meeting Zoellick.
Zoellick agreed, saying: "There are some good models here that I would like to take elsewhere in the world."
The World Bank president -- who previously visited Australia and Cambodia -- was due to visit bank-funded Hanoi projects Tuesday before travelling on to Japan and returning to the United States on August 9.
By Frank Zeller - Agence France Presse - August 6, 2007.
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