State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and WB Regional Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Victoria Kwakwa (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted a reception in Hanoi on June 29 for World Bank (WB) Regional VicePresident for East Asia and the Pacific Victoria Kwakwa who is on a working trip to Vietnam.
Hailing Kwakwa for herdedication to promoting effective cooperation programmes between WB andVietnam, Phuc affirmed that the Vietnamese State and people always highly valueher efforts and contributions in the field.
The WB has assisted Vietnam not only in poverty reduction but also in the building of mechanisms and strategicinfrastructure framework over the past years, thus helping Vietnam make breakthroughstrides, which have been welcomed by the WB and international organisations, hesaid.
Phuc thanked the WB for supporting Vietnam’s bid to delay the payment of InternationalDevelopment Association’s loans in order to have more resources for the fight againstCOVID-19 and for economic development. He also lauded the WB’s initiatives toassist countries in the COVID-19 fight, including Vietnam.
Kwakwa, for her part, congratulated Vietnam on curbing the COVID-19 spread. Atthe same time, the country also harmoniously combined fiscal and monetary policiesto generate strong economic growth, becoming one of a few nations with positivegrowth in the region and achievements in export.
Underlining theimportance of vaccinations, she also committed all possible support to Vietnamto buy vaccines and offer health care to its people.
About Vietnam’s socio-economic development orientations, Kwakwa said Vietnamhas devised a relatively complete development policy framework, especially regardingthe development of key economic zones, digital transformation, inclusivedevelopment, climate change response and green growth, which are strategicinfrastructure for Vietnam to become an upper middle-income country by 2045.
The guest also spoke highly of Vietnam’s efforts to realise the climate changeresponse strategy in the Mekong Delta and reduce greenhouse carbon emissions.She suggested Vietnam pay more attention to reducing coal-fired power development andswitching to cleaner and greener energy production.
The host wished that the WB would continue assisting Vietnam in fulfillingdevelopment goals till 2035 and 2045, as well as addressing post-pandemic povertyrelapse in countries, including Vietnam.
Phuc discussed with the WB official measures to fix shortcomings in building projects anddisbursing official development assistance (ODA) in Vietnam, and proposed Kwakwa seek more ODA to Vietnam in the time to come./.
