Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will exert its utmost toassist Vietnam’s development process and its Finance Ministry in humanresource training, affirmed its Vice President Izumi Arai.
At ameeting with Vietnam Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue in Tokyo on Nov. 2,Arai said apart from the assistance in building infrastructure, Japanis ready to cooperate in improving policies and mechanisms and in humanresource training, to serve Vietnam’s economic development.
Heemphasised the importance of increasing the competitiveness of Vietnam’seconomy in the medium and long term. However, he said, theimplementation of policies to stabilise the macro-economy is anextremely important task for Vietnam when the global economy is facingmany difficulties.
JICA will discuss with the Japanese Governmenton providing financial assistance to the Vietnamese Government ifVietnam needs help when implementing these policies, he said.
Accordingto Arai, Japan’s pledge for Vietnam in the 2011 fiscal year may amountto 200 billion JPY, 50 billion JPY more than in 2010.
To preparefor the signing of loans agreements for seven other projects in Vietnamin the second half of the 2011 fiscal year, a Japanese governmentaldelegation will visit Vietnam in mid-November.
Minister Hueaffirmed Vietnam has carried out drastic measures to stabilise itsmacro-economy in the context of the global public debt crisis.
Huesaid the Vietnamese Government prioritises restructuring the economy,public investment and the system of State-owned enterprises and humanresource development.
Earlier, Minister Hue and Vice PresidentArai signed loan agreements for six important projects worth 1.2 billionUSD. They included the Lach Huyen deepwater port development project,the North-South Highway construction project at the Ben Luc-Long Thanhsection, the Nghi Son thermo-electric power plant, a programme to copewith climate change, and a satellite observation project to monitordisasters and climate change.
Also on Nov. 2, Minister Hue received leaders of Mizuho, a major Japanese financial and banking group./.