The Vietnamese Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) havesigned two loan agreements totalling nearly 234 million USD to supportreforms to strengthen the country’s competiveness and to help deliver asustainable urban transport system in Hanoi.

Thesigned agreements include a 230 million USD policy loan for theImproving Competitiveness Programme, which will support the EconomicManagement Competitive Credit Programme—a joint development partnerbudget support program aligned to the national reform priorities of thegovernment.

The programme will support governmentreforms in six policy areas, including the financial sector, fiscalpolicy, public sector administration and accountability, stateenterprise management, public investment management, and businessenvironment.

The second agreement is for a 4.2million USD loan for the Strengthening Sustainable Urban Transport forHanoi Metro Line 3 Project, which has a total investment of 58.95million USD.

The project will be used to increasethe effectiveness and sustainability of another ADB-financed project,the Hanoi Metro Rail System Project (Line 3: Nhon-Ha Noi StationSection), by improving access to stations, and enhan cing connectivitybetween the line and other modes of public and private transport. Theproject will also strengthen urban transport policies and regulations.

“Strengthened competitiveness will be critical forVietnam to derive maximum benefits from a global recovery and thecountry’s continuing economic integration into the world economy,”Tomoyuki Kimura, Country Director for Vietnam, was quoted as saying inan ADB press release.

“ADB welcomes and fully supports thegovernment's strong commitment to the ongoing economic restructuring andreform agenda which will allow the country to continue to successfullytransform itself into a dynamic, competitive, and efficient marketeconomy,” he added.-VNA