Vietnam highly values WB support: Prime Minister

Da Nang (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a meeting with World Bank (WB) Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Victoria Kwakwa on November 7 on the sidelines of the ongoing APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in the central city of Da Nang.

Highlighting the effective cooperation between Vietnam and the World Bank over the past years, the PM noted that in its Vietnam 2035 Report released in 2016, the WB gave positive assessments of Vietnam in finance and other fields.

Vietnam always highly values the position of the WB in international and regional forums, he said.

Victoria Kwakwa expressed her delight to come back to Vietnam and continue the lender’s cooperation activities in the country. She also showed her impression of Vietnam’s economic growth in 2017, making it a destination of foreign investors.

The year of 2017 marks 20 years of the economic recession in 1997, she noted, saying that she hopes Vietnam will speed up risk evaluation and financial system restructuring and make new breakthrough in bad debt settlement. The WB is always willing to support Vietnam in the work as well as the implementation of agenda boosting inclusiveness of the financial system.

Amidst the high demand of capital for infrastructure development of Vietnam, the bank hopes to cooperate with the country in mobilising resources through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and building other mechanisms to attract investment from the private sector.

Vietnam should introduce major projects to call for investment, she advised, adding that WB can support the country in a number of projects, including the North-South Expressway, Long Thanh International Airport, and the upgrade of Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The WB is also ready to assist Vietnam in designing strategic solutions to deal with problems in accessing loans and avoid the situation where public debt is likely to hit its ceiling, she declared.

Lauding Kwakwa’s suggestion, PM Phuc said that Vietnam has set the public debt ceiling of lower than 65 percent of the GDP, adding this is a tough goal requiring the country to boost GDP growth and choose to invest in practical important projects. He also stressed the need to apply the PPP model, calling the WB to cooperate in building institutional grounds to improve the effectiveness of the mechanism.

The PM stressed that the bank’s Country Partnership Framework in the 2017-2022 period is important to shape affiliations between Vietnam and the lender in the next five years, focusing on inclusiveness and encouraging the private sector’s involvement, human resources development, environmental protection and climate change response.

Highlighting the significance of mitigating climate change impacts, especially in the Mekong Delta region, the Government leader said he hopes the WB will assist Vietnam in finance and strategic policy consultations in the field.-VNA