The Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam, Nguyen Van Giau and the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Haruhiko Kuroda, on May 5 signed a USD1.38 billion financial assistance deal set to help increase access to clean water, conserve threatened forests and ease urban gridlock throughout Viet Nam.
The total project cost will amount to approximately USD4.5 billion.
"The ADB\'s assistance will help ensure access to clean water, the development of cities and the preservation of biologically diverse forests for future generations," said ADB President Kuroda.
According to the ADB, in many of Viet Nam\'s largest cities, up to 40 percent of treated water is lost before it reaches the end user. Moreover, four in every ten families have no connection to a central water supply system at all. The USD1 billion financial support mechanism from the ADB will help improve clean water access for 3 million families in Viet Nam\'s cities, including half a million poor households who will receive their own piped water connection for the first time. The ADB\'s assistance forms part of a USD2.8 billion investment programme.
A USD30 million loan from the ADB\'s concessional Asian Development Fund will further enhance cross-border co-operation in protecting a continuos stretch of biologically divers forest in Viet Nam\'s central region, which spans the highlands of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam provinces.
A USD350 million loan, part of an overall USD636 million ADB package will support a USD1.6 billion project to construct a modern expressway to the south of congested Ho Chi Minh City. The 57-kilometre expressway between Ben Luc and Long Thanh will reduce traffic congestion in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City by allowing vehicles travelling from east to west to bypass the city centre. When the expressway opens in 2017, it will reduce east-west travel time by 80 percent and cut the number of traffic accidents by 10 percent.
