British aid to Vietnam ends in five years

The UK will continue to help Vietnam meet its Millennium Development Goal targets in primary education, sanitation and HIV/AIDS prevention until 2016, a spokesperson for the British embassy said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

The announcement follows a statement by the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, on the outcome of the Bilateral/Multilateral Aid Review in London on Tuesday.

As a result of the Review, the UK will continue to support Viet Nam during the last five years of the 10-year Development Partnership Arrangement, in accordance with the UK – Viet Nam Strategic Partnership signed in September last year, Mitchell said.

"As Viet Nam is now a vibrant, emerging economy – a tremendous achievement – we will end our bilateral development programme in Viet Nam by 2016, to redirect our aid to poorer countries that will need it more," he said.

"The announcement of the end of UK aid is being made five years before aid will end in recognition of the respect and trust between the two Governments, and we will hold further ministerial level meetings soon to finalise the details of our development co-operation over the next five years," he said.

Viet Nam is one of 16 countries which the UK said it would cease providing aid. The other 15 include Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Russia and Serbia.

The UK, through the Department for International Development, has provided more than £380 million (US$617 million) in grants to Viet Nam through the two countries\' bilateral programme, launched in 1992.