WB lends flu-hit Vietnam farmers

WB lends flu-hit Vietnam farmers

HANOI: The World Bank, one of Vietnam's biggest aid donors, will lend the country US$10 million to compensate farmers who have lost poultry because of bird flu and help them raise new flocks.

"We're thinking of somewhere around $10 million which probably would, for the period of the next 12 to 15 months, be sufficient," Klaus Rohland, Vietnam country director for the World Bank, told reporters on Friday.

The virulent H5N1 bird flu virus, suspected to have been spread by migrating birds, has broken out in eight Asian countries, devastating poultry flocks and killing at least 14 people in Vietnam and five in Thailand.

About 30 million of an estimated 250 million poultry in Vietnam have been killed by the virus or culled as authorities try to stamp it out.

The government has promised up to 15,000 dong (about $1) for every bird culled.

Rohland said the aid would be in the form of soft loans and grants, and the first disbursement could be "as early as May". -- Reuters