The meeting between Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung and WB Country Director for Vietnam Carolyn Turk on November 2 (Photo: VNA) The host described the WB’sassistance as a major contribution to local development, noting that Hanoialways views the bank as an important partner which has not only served as aprovider of capital for projects but also helped improve investors’ capacityand assisted the city in accessing sources of advanced knowledge in the world.
The 11 programmes and projects fundedby the WB, with total value of about 269 million USD, have been completed andproved effective, Dung noted.
Hanoi is ready for a stage of breakthroughdevelopment so as to become a green, civilised, modern, and smart city withfast and sustainable growth. To that end, it will need foreign directinvestment (FDI), official development assistance (ODA) capital, andconcessional loans, and the WB will be one of the large sponsors, according tothe official.
He added that as Hanoi will face numerous challenges during the developmentprocess, including those related to planning, wastewater treatment, airpollution, traffic infrastructure, digital administration building, and relicpreservation, every financial support and technical project is very important.
WB Country Director Turk held that the issues mentioned by Dung are results ofHanoi’s fast development over the past years, noting it’s now the right timefor the city to deal with barriers before these problems become more difficultand complex.
She suggested working groups between the two sides be set up and regularmeetings be held to review outcomes of each group’s performance, affirming thatthe WB is willing to help the city to take future steps.
At the meeting, the two sidesdiscussed many affairs of common concern, including air pollution, wastewaterand solid waste treatment, the construction of some urban rail routes, themechanism for allocating capital among the localities in the Capital Region,and smart city building.
Dung expressed his hopethat the Hanoi - WB cooperation will become stronger through the implementationof projects, thus contributing to the city’s sustainable development./.
VNA
