The World Bank (WB) Country Director in Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa has hailed the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai ’s efforts in implementing projects and programmes funded by the World Bank and the United Kingdom ’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Kwakwa made the statement at a workshop held by the province on May 20 to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of these projects.

However, she said that in the time to come, Lao Cai province needs to consider promoting its internal sources to develop its socio-economy as the official development assistance (ODA) fund may be reduced.

Speaking at the workshop, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Vinh pledged to ensure the process of ongoing projects and programmes.

He expressed his hope that the WB and DFID will continue assisting the province in addressing difficulties in clean water, education, health and electricity supply for mountainous areas. Lao Cai also needs more support to deal with climate change, natural disasters and environmental sanitation in rural areas, as well as providing loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

In the 2009-2013 period, WB and DFID have provided Lao Cai province with 106.3 million USD (more than 2.2 trillion VND) through projects and programmes upgrading 70 kilometres of rural road and basic infrastructure, providing school lunches for 4,323 students, investing in 70 works on building roads, bridges and water systems, and improving livelihood for more than 6,000 poor households.

All local communes have to date had main roads built linking them with the provincial centre, while the irrigation system ensures water for 85 percent of farmland, and 84 percent of local households have access to clean water.

In the coming time, DFID will assist the province in anti-corruption activities, improving institutional capacity and public administrative management, as well as increasing the province’s ability to maintain its road network.-VNA