Contacts:
In Vietnam : Ngan Hong Nguyen Phone: +84-4-9346600 ext. 234 Email: nnguyen5@worldbank.org In Washington: Elisabeth Mealey Phone: 1-202-458 4475 Email: emealey@worldbank.org Washington DC, May 22nd, 2008 - The World Bank Board of Directors today approved over 502 million USD in support of Vietnam’s urban infrastructure, rural electricity network expansion and access to finance in Vietnam’s rural areas. “This reflects the World Bank’s continuous and enhanced commitment to assisting Vietnam to address the challenges in its development path.” said Ajay Chhibber, the World Bank Country Director for Vietnam. “These are the sectors that Vietnam will need to pay attention to if it wants to ensure continued and equitable growth. Therefore, I believe that the financial and technical assistance under these projects will bring real changes to the lives of the poor people, both in urban and rural areas.” The money – coming from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional lending arm for low income countries – will be used for three projects, namely Da Nang Priority Infrastructure Investment Project, Rural Distribution Project and Vietnam Third Rural Finance Project. The Da Nang Priority Infrastructure Investment Project aims to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of urban services in Da Nang City through a package of priority investments including urban upgrading, environmental infrastructure improvement and strategic road access construction in selected areas, as well as measures for institutional strengthening in investment planning and in the management of urban services. The project consists of two phases. Phase 1 (2008-2010) includes all investments to be launched during the first year of the project. Phase 2 (2009-2013) includes all remaining investments. The total cost for this project is 218.46 million USD, of which IDA will provide 152.44 million USD. The Vietnam Rural Distribution Project is to improve the level of medium voltage service to targeted retail electricity distribution systems. The project will achieve this though rehabilitating and increasing the capacity of existing distribution lines and sub-stations and standardizing them to 22, 35 and 110kV. It will enable them to meet the growing demand more efficiently, provide better quality and quantity of electric power for productive uses, and reduce power system losses. Technical assistance will complement the physical investment by supporting the development of the PCs into modern power distribution utilities. The total cost for this project is 206.28 million USD, in which IDA will contribute 150.00 million USD and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) will provide 3 million USD. The Vietnam Third Rural Finance Project objective is to increase economic benefits to rural private enterprises and households by increasing their access to finance. The goals are expected to be achieved through enabling rural private entrepreneurs to access capital and technological advances and upgrades, providing micro credit to the rural population, and assisting the participating credit and financial institutions to render better services and develop new products for the rural areas. IDA will provide 200 million USD out of the total 230 million USD cost of this project. For more information on the Da Nang Priority Infrastructure Investment Project, go to http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P086508 For more information on the Vietnam Rural Distribution Project, go to http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P099211 For more information on the Vietnam Third Rural Finance Project, go to http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?Projectid=P100916&Type=Overview&theSitePK=40941&pagePK=64283627&menuPK=64282134&piPK=64290415 ******** For more information about the World Bank program in Vietnam, visit http://www.worldbank.org/vn |
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