Viet Nam, IFAD sign poverty reduction project
Rome, (VNA)- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide Viet Nam with 38.7 million USD in aid to help the country fight poverty.
The commitment was made in a bilateral accord signed in Rome, Italy, on Feb. 15 by Deputy Minister of Finance Le Thi Bang Tam and IFAD President Lennart Bage.
Of the aid, 24.1 million USD will be in credit and 630,000 USD in grants, according to the accord.
Part of the money will be disbursed in loans as business start-up investments to some 70,000 poor families living in 841 remote hamlets in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang and the central coastal province of Quang Binh.
Through construction works to upgrade the local road and irrigation systems, the IFAD-funded project will help generate jobs for local workers, improve the crop irrigation, and facilitate farmers' sales of products.
Viet Nam has recorded major steps forwards in poverty alleviation over the past years. But hunger and poverty remain a problem in rural areas, where people from ethnic minority groups and women are the most affected, said Atsuko Toda, IFAD's Country Portfolio Manager, at the signing ceremony.
The fresh aid has brought to 104.8 million USD the IFAD's total financial commitments to Viet Nam so far.
Tam, who is leading a delegation of the Finance Ministry to the 28th session of the IFAD's Executive Council, is expected to initial an agreement on debt transfer with Norway and a tri-partite memorandum of understanding between Norway, Viet Nam and IFAD on the co-funding of the project.
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