Japanese OEDF opens office in Hanoi
Japanese OEDF opens office in Hanoi
HANOI (AFP): Japan's powerful Overseas Economic Development Fund (OEDF), which has lent Vietnam US$970 million since 1992, opened an office in Hanoi yesterday.
OECF president Akira Nishigaki officially opened the office while on a six-day visit to Vietnam during which he will hold talks with Vietnam's leaders on the fund's economic cooperation with Hanoi, the OECF said.
Nishigaki will meet Premier Vo Van Kiet and Communist Party General Secretary Do Muoi during the trip, which started Thursday, and will also visit the northern port city of Haiphong, the central port of Danang and Ho Chi Minh City, it added. Japan is Vietnam's largest aid donor.
The OECF has responsibility for about half of Japan's bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans, which reached US$10 billion in fiscal 1993, and operates in nearly 80 countries.
The fund resumed operations in November 1992 when Nishigaki first visited the country, granting Hanoi a 450 million dollar loan for balance of payment support.
The organization has since committed project loans with a total value of $520 million aimed at launching crucial infrastructure schemes in the energy and transport sectors.
The loans covered the initial stage of construction of three electric power stations plants: the Phu My thermal plant and Ham Thuan-Da Mi hydroelectric plant in the south, as well as the Pha Lai thermal plant in the north.
Other objectives of the loans are to repair and upgrade Haiphong port, the dilapidated Highway No. 5, which links Hanoi with Haiphong, bridges on Highway No.1, linking Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, and bridges on rail the route between the two cities.
In addition, part of the assistance will be used to rehabilitate road and water supply networks in rural areas, the OECF said.
It added that it would provide the second loans for those projects as well as a new loan to upgrade Hanoi's drainage system.
The Vietnamese government has said it needs $20-25 billion in overseas assistance in the next decade to develop infrastructure, particularly roads and power supplies.
Although aid is expected to rise to around $1 billion a year, bottlenecks in administration may hold up development, a point acknowledged by Do Muoi in an interview published in October.
Technical problems hampered the disbursement of 52.6 billion yen in loans pledged for fiscal 1993, which ended in April last year, officials said after a week-long visit here in October by a high-level Japanese delegation to discuss aid.
Japanese diplomats have expressed frustration that while 40 of their civil servants administer aid to Vietnam, in Hanoi only one official is responsible for clearing projects and he also has to handle other donors such as Australia.