Hanoi VNA) – President of the Asian Dev♉elopment Bank (ADB) Takehiko Nakao has vowed that his bank will continue to give strong support to Vietnam through loans of about 1 billion USD each year, as soon as it builds a new Country Partnership Strategy for Vietnam in the 2016-2020 period.

Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi on June 17 concluding his three-day Vietnam visit, he said that major objective of the strategy is to assist Vietnam in boosting uniform and sustainable growth to match the country’s socio-economic development plan in the 2016-2020 period. Vietnam should continue realising suitable economic policies as well as in-depth renovation, he suggested, stressing the importance of restructuring State-owned enterprises by reducing State ownership and improving business management and financial efficiency. He recommended that the Vietnamese Government tackle bad debts, increase tax income and streamline public expenditure. He said that the ABD expects a 6.7 percent growth in 2016, equal to that of 2015 despite the serious drought the country has faced. Meanwhile, inflation is predicted to hold at 3 percent, 0.6 percent higher than last year. A 6.5 percent growth rate is also forecast for 2017. Regarding priorities in the bilateral partnership in the coming time, Takehiko Nakao revealed that the bank will assist Vietnam ’s efforts in fulfilling its sustainable development goals as well as expanding public healthcare stations and increasing the number of people joining health insurance. The bank will strengthen in-depth support to Vietnam in improving secondary education, while increasing assistance in education and vocational training, he stated. Meanwhile, Vietnam will get more help in infrastructure development, including public transport systems, together with power transmission and distribution, rural electrification, urban renewable energy infrastructure, irrigation and water resource management. The ADB will work for stronger connectivity within the Mekong Sub-region Cooperation Programme, including the East-West Economic Corridor, he added. Noting that Vietnam is increasingly burdened by the impacts of climate change, he stressed that climate change adaptation will be one of ABD’s focus areas to provide technical assistance and loans. The ADB will help the Vietnamese Government design clear policies on suitable energy distribution to match its COP21 commitments, he added. On infrastructure systems, the bank will give more power to its representative offices in the process of approving related projects, while incorporating more updated and green technologies into its projects to cope with climate change and reduce costs, stated the bank President. The bank will also invest more to the private sector, especially those in the areas of finance, agriculture and infrastructure, while preparing major public-private partnership (PPP) projects to suit the agreed legal framework for such projects, he said. During the visit, the ADB President also had working sessions with President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, State Bank Governor Le Minh Hung, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung, and head of Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh.-VNA