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.