The Asian Development Bank was committed to three loans worth 210 million USD to help rural Vietnam upgrade infrastructure, improve transport connectivity and prevent the outbreak of epidemics.

The agreement on the three loans was signed by the State Bank of Vietnam and the ADB in Hanoi on February 23.

The biggest loan, valued at 108 million USD, is for a project on infrastructure development, covering construction, reconstruction and the upgrade of infrastructure facilities in northern mountainous provinces. It will focus on upgrading 600 km of rural roads as well as traditional markets on village and district scales for 15 poorest provinces in the northern mountainous region.

The project also aims to improve management capacity and the better use of infrastructure, thus gradually improving living conditions for poor highlanders.

A 75 million USD loan will go to the second phase of an upgrade to the transport system in the northern part of the greater sub-Mekong region. The money will be spent upgrading 340 km of roads, and repairing and building transport projects.

The final loan worth 27 million USD is for the second phase of contagious disease control in the sub-Mekong region. It is aimed at strengthening cooperation in contagious disease control and also seeks to improve competence for workers specialising in preventive medicine, especially those at the commune and district levels, and support the control of emerging contagious and tropical diseases which have drawn little concern./.