CPV: The World Bank’s Board of Directors has approved two International Development Association (IDA) credits for Vietnam: a Seventh Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC 7) for 150 million USD and the Northern Delta Transport Development Project for 170 million USD.

The Bank also envisages a total of approximately 5 billion USD in IDA and IBRD commitments to support Vietnam over the coming three years.

According to the Bank’s report, the PRSC 7 was made in recognition of the country’s progress in business development, social inclusion, natural resources management and modern governance, which are also the four pillars of the Social Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2006-2010.

In social inclusion, the PRSC 7 recognizes the Government’s efforts to revise tuition fees at secondary and tertiary levels, better reflecting market conditions, and enhance policies to protect the poor. At the same time, a health insurance law which better pools risks and allows improved incentives in payment to service providers has been submitted to the National Assembly for consideration.

Subject to confirmation, the PRSC 7 is expected to receive further financial support from the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands Spain, and the United Kingdom with the total capital of 317 million USD.

The development objective of the Northern Delta Transport Development Project is to enhance the efficiency, environmental sustainability and safety of transport infrastructure and services, through the alleviation of physical and institutional bottlenecks, in two major waterway corridors in Vietnam’s Northern Delta Region. Specifically, the project aims to reduce travel time along two major waterway corridors in northern Vietnam, reduce traffic accidents and fatalities associated with river crossings at ferry boat stages improved by the project, and reduce environmental pollution from the operations of river ports improved by the project.

The project consists of three main components: multimodal transport corridor investments (147.1 million USD), investments in ferry boat stages (4.6 million USD), and institutional support to the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam Inland Waterway Administration and the provinces (5.1 million USD).