JICA has granted Vietnam 5 million USD in non-refundable aid, he told a press conference held in Hanoi on October 12 to review JICA Vietnam’s activities in the first half of the fiscal year 2022 (from April 1 to September 30).
JICA has helped strengthen Vietnam’s capacity in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to communicable diseases by donating 850 million JPY worth of medical supplies, including ECMO machines; and transferring technology and providing key equipment to a new Biosafety Level-3 Laboratory (BSL-3) of Ho Chi Minh City’s Pasteur Institute, worth more than 200 million JPY in total.
The Japanese agency has also provided ODA for HCM City to implement the second phase of a water environment improvement project in the city. The project aims to improve local environment through wastewater treatment capacity building and flooding damage control.
It has signed a loan agreement of up to 25 million USD with a private Vietnamese company for an onshore wind power project in Quang Tri, Shimizu Akira said, adding all the 51 carriages to be used on HCM City’s Metro Line No.1 are manufactured by Japan.
He said that JICA will further contribute to infrastructure development, a growth driver of Vietnam, and he expects Vietnam to continue using ODA efficiently.
It plans to offer the Vietnam – Japan University technical support and funding to launch new doctoral training programmes and establish a new campus in Hoa Lac in 2023, hoping to raise the number of the university’s students to 6,000.
It will cooperate with three centrally-run Vietnamese hospitals, namely Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi), Hue Central Hospital (Thua Thien-Hue), and Cho Ray Hospital (HCM City), to provide remote training for local medical systems as part of JICA's Initiative for Global Health and Medicine. Additionally, it will enhance partnership with Japan’s private enterprises, non-governmental organisations and universities to help Vietnam improve rehabilitation and nursing care services, given that the country is facing new challenges like population ageing.
JICA will assist Vietnam in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 by financing new solar and wind power projects, developing an eco-industrial park in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, accelerating circular economy and responding to climate change, he said.
