WB approves USD 110 million loan for poverty reduction project
Ha Noi, Oct. 27 (VNA) -- The World Bank has approved a USD 110 million loan for a participatory poverty reduction project in Viet Nam's northern mountainous areas.
The project is expected to benefit about one million people, 85 percent of whom are ethnic minorities, through investments in rural roads and markets, irrigation and water supply systems, basic education and health, and community development.
It is co-financed by the British Department for International Development (DFID), Japan and Denmark have provided important support in the design stages.
The project "aims to improve the lives of some of the poorest people in Viet Nam by directly involving them in the decision-making process on how project funds can be used to meet their needs and help contribute to a better life," Andrew Steer, the bank's country director, was quoted by Viet Nam News daily.
The project will build new rural roads and upgrade existing ones that run from districts to communes, between communes, and from communes to villages, and construct a small number of small suspension bridges as well as rural markets.
It will help increase agricultural productivity and ensure stable production by building and repairing irrigation schemes, constructing new village and household water supply systems and repairing existing systems; and providing training and extension services to farmer groups for improvement of staple food crops, animal husbandry, forestry, household-based handicraft production and agro-processing.
An upland agriculture "on-site" research programme will also be supported by the project.
Classrooms and clinics will be built and repaired in communes and villages and minority girls will be encouraged to enrol for classes. Training will be provided to ethnic minority teachers and health workers, and village women will be instructed in functional literacy.
The project will cover six provinces of Bac Giang, Hoa Binh, Lao Cai, Phu Tho, Son La, and Yen Bai.--VNA
