Delta Project to improve irrigation and drainage infrastructure ensuring further poverty reduction in Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces. The signing ceremony was held at the SBV head office in Hanoi on March 14. Mr. Shigeru Kishida, Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, and representatives of ministries and agencies and several SBV departments also attended the ceremony.
The technical assistance grant will finance the preparation of the project, which intends to upgrade water resources infrastructure covering over 50,000 hectares in the four provinces of Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh in the mid- and northeast Red River Delta. In addition to the physical infrastructure upgrading works, the project will also promote economic development through associated rural development support activities, and promote the training of personnel of irrigation and drainage management companies as well as increase the number of personnel engaged in water resources infrastructure improvement and management.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Deputy Governor Le Minh Hung highlighted that over the past years, the Government of Vietnam has always paid attention to and invested in irrigation infrastructure in the mid- and northeast provinces with the aim of making agriculture become the leading economic sector with fast development, contributing a large share to the economic structure of the region. However, due to the limited investment resources, the achieved results have not been corresponding to the potential of the region. Therefore, in the Agricultural Development Strategy in the period of 2011-2020, in addition to the domestic capital, the Government of Vietnam mobilized more resources, of which ODA plays an important role for the irrigation development of the region. The technical assistance grant for the water resources development in the Mid- and Northeast Red River Delta project funded by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction is of paramount importance and prerequisite for the preparation of ADB-financed project in the following years, he remarked. Meanwhile, the SBV Deputy Governor expressed his thanks to the ADB and the Japanese Government for their support for the Vietnamese Government in implementing the Project and his hope that the cooperation will continue to strengthen and develop in the future not only in the agricultural sector but also in many other ones, thereby actively contributing to poverty reduction in Vietnam.
For his part, Mr. Tomoyuki Kimura stated that despite recent high rates of economic growth, low household incomes and poverty persist in rural areas of Vietnam. One of the main reasons for this, especially in the Red River Delta region, is small land-holdings and limited access to productive resources, particularly, water resources, he said. To raise incomes and reduce poverty in rural areas, he added, the country needs to increase agricultural production and consequently increase employment opportunities and that could not be done without development of effective rural infrastructure which is at the core of both economic growth and social development. The grant by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, which is to be administered by ADB, will be part of ADB’s ongoing and continuing efforts to assist the Vietnamese Government to more effectively use its natural resources and contribute to higher levels of agricultural production, expand employment opportunities, and increase rural household incomes and reduce poverty, he stressed.