Vietnam seeks WB soft loans for major traffic, climate projects

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has urged the World Bank (WB) to provide low-interest loans for key and large-scale traffic and climate-focused projects in Vietnam.

The potential projects stretch across a wide range of areas such as expressways, urban infrastructure, urban railways, a country-long high-speed railway, digital and energy transformation, low-carbon agriculture, and Mekong Delta climate change response.

The Vietnamese prime minister made the request at a Tuesday reception in Hanoi for WB regional vice president for East Asia and Pacific Manuela V. Ferro, International Finance Corporation (IFC) regional vice president for Asia and the Pacific Riccardo Puliti, and IFC vice president and treasurer John Gandolfo.

The event took place after a gathering between Chinh and WB President Ajay Banga in September to discuss game-changing projects in Vietnam, and follow-up meetings between Chinh and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang and WB country director for Vietnam Carolyn Turk that aimed to speed up WB-funded projects.

For her part, Ferro affirmed that the WB will continue to accompany and assist Vietnam in achieving its goal of becoming a high-income country by 2045. She suggested greater efforts from both sides to accelerate the preparations and implementation of the projects.

The WB is actively coordinating with Vietnamese ministries and sectors to identify critical projects for future collaboration, with preferential loans for the areas aforementioned by the Vietnamese PM.

In interaction with IFC leaders, Chinh asked the IFC to continue to allocate resources and investments for Vietnam, particularly in forming funds serving the development of the private sector in emerging and high-tech fields such as semiconductors, clean energy, and electric vehicles.

The WB has committed some $25 billion for over 170 projects in Vietnam. The ongoing portfolio is funded with $3 billion while $2.4 billion has been allocated for 29 other projects under preparation.

At a meeting in mid-October, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang and Carolyn Turk discussed loans of $5 billion-$7 billion to implement major railway and highway projects.