The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency (AFD) on May 5 signed a loan agreement worth 20 million EUR, to finance a socio-economic development project in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh .
The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency(AFD) on May 5 signed a loan agreement worth 20 million EUR, to finance asocio-economic development project in the southern city of Ho ChiMinh .
The project is part of cooperative activities between France and Vietnam .
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh saidthat the project would help to build social housing and educationinstitutes, reinforce hospitals’ capacity in receipting and caring forpatients and modernise waste collection and management.
The total cost of the programme is 96 million EUR, with AFD to providepartial finance, estimated at 20 percent of the total, through the HoChi Minh Finance and Investment Company (HFIC), the first investmentfund established in Vietnam to finance medium-scale urbaninfrastructure projects.
AFD was the first sponsorof HFIC, through aid worth 30 million EUR in 2006. The funding wasdisbursed to social housing projects and education, health care andenvironment projects.
Along with the loan, AFD alsogranted a 1.5 million EUR non-refundable aid aimed at enhancing HFIC’scapacities in managing finance, as well as assessing the environment andsociety.
With the financing agreement, the total(official development assistance (ODA)) commitment of AFD to Vietnamamounted to almost 1.050 billion EUR./.
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