Vietnam PM Okays Disbursement of $143M ODA for Climate Change Projects

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has okayed the use of VND3 trillion ($143 million) official development assistance (ODA) from the Support Program to Respond to Climate Change (SP-RCC) for climate change response projects in 2015. The sum would be poured into 16 projects focusing on developing coastal mangrove forest, preventive forest, watershed forest, and flood preventing. Being one of five countries hardest hit by climate change, Vietnam has borrowed foreign loans over the past years as climate change causes a loss worth $1.9 billion to the Southeast Asian country annually. From 2009, the Southeast Asian country received $1 billion from the organizations, including the WB, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the French Development Agency (AFD), the World Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (Thoi Bao Ngan Hang – Banking Times Sept 29 p2, Tin Tuc – News Sept 29 p3)