Japan grants assistance to five projects in south
By Thu Nguyet - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Japan agreed to finance five non-refundable Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in Vietnam’s southern and south-central provinces last weekend.
The grants, worth around US$480,000 in total, will be spent to provide Ben Tre and Hau Giang provinces with medical equipment and to build schools in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces. In addition, a dam and drainage system will be built in Long An Province.
The program is called the Grant Assistance for Grassroots and Human Security Project (GGP). The Japanese government has funded nine projects worth more than US$850,000 in 26 southern provinces and cities this fiscal year.
The signing ceremony took place in HCMC last Friday between relevant provincial senior officials and Ikuo Mizuki, Japan’s consul general.
“It’s the biggest non-refundable assistance to small projects since GGP was launched in 1995,” Mizuki said.
“Although Japanese ODA was cut off in fiscal 2009 amid the global economic crisis, our ODA to Asian countries, including Vietnam, was maintained because the government wants to foster good relationships with these countries,” he added. Mizuki said that Japan had provided more ODA capital to Vietnam than to any other country this fiscal year. India received the most ODA capital from Japan prior to 2008, while Indonesia and Vietnam ranked second and third respectively.