Sugano Yuichi, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) – Việt Nam Office answers the questions at the press briefing.— Photo courtesy of JiCA Việt Nam Office

Sugano Yuichi, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Việt Nam Office, talks with local media at a press briefing about results of projects that JICA has operated to support Việt Nam in fiscal year 2022 as well as its on-going assistances in year 2023

How do you evaluate JICA's support for Việt Nam and what would you say is the highlight?

Regarding JICA Việt Nam's operating results in fiscal year 2022, from April 2022 to the end of March 2023, first of all, we want to share specific data, including, total value Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan commitment was JPY18.9 billion (approximately US$1.26 billion), not including "Investment financing for the private sector"; the value of ODA capital for technical cooperation projects was JPY4.7 billion (approximately $31.3 million) and for non-refundable aid projects was JPY700 million (approximately $4.67 million), with more than 100 large and small projects have been implemented.

One of the outstanding results in the fiscal year 2022 I want to mention is that the system of hydrological monitoring equipment and the natural-disaster management information system combined with flood forecasting under non-refundable aid projects were inaugurated in May 2022 in the central region of Việt Nam, which suffers the most from the impacts of natural disasters, especially storms and floods. In addition, JICA has also been operating a technical cooperation project to assist Việt Nam to mitigate risks, triggered by flash floods and landslides, in the northern region; and improving the accuracy of meteorological forecasts nationwide in response to the fact that damage caused by natural disasters has been increasing in recent years.

In terms of human resource training, under the ODA loan project to upgrade Cần Thơ University, the laboratory complex and high-tech building were inaugurated in October 2022. In the northern region, 360 students graduated from the master's programme of Việt Nam–Japan University. The school also welcomed nearly 300 undergraduate and master's students at its opening ceremony of the school year 2023-24 in October. JICA will continue its cooperation in the field of human resource training to enhance the teaching and scientific research capacity of the two universities.

In fiscal year 2023, an outstanding result that must be mentioned is the ODA loan agreement signed in July for three projects, with a total value of more than JPY60 billion (approximately $400 million). The projects aim to improve urban public transport infrastructure; strengthen the agricultural supply chain; and support Việt Nam's socio-economic recovery and development after the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the time that the highest number of ODA loan agreements were signed at the same time after six years, since 2017.

Could you please tell us about JICA's development support for Việt Nam in the second half of fiscal year 2023 (from October 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024) and thereafter, especially during the period when Việt Nam is trying to restore the economy after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

I would like to introduce some areas that JICA will focus on cooperation in Việt Nam in the future. The first support is cooperation in the field of high quality infrastructure. As I mentioned above, two newly-signed ODA loan projects consist of the project to improve public transport infrastructure in the southern province of Bình Dương and the project to improve infrastructure for agricultural development in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng. The two projects are believed to contribute to improving the public transport system and agricultural supply chain in the two provinces.

The first train of the urban railway line No. 1 (Bến Thành - Suối Tiên) departs for a trial run on the entire route in HCM City on the morning of August 29. The construction of the line is implemented under ODA loans from JICA.— VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vũ

Regarding urban railway line No. 1 in HCM City, the report of the Management Authority for Urban Railways HCM City showed that the progress of the line has reached about 96 per cent so far and it is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. The line is expected to be put into operation in July 2024.

The second support is cooperation in human resource development. In addition to cooperating in training human resources at the university level at Việt Nam-Japan University (VJU) and Cần Thơ University, JICA has started carrying out a new project to support for Vietnamese trainees, including building an information portal to provide useful recruitment information for Vietnamese workers who want to work in Japan. Furthermore, following the JICA's cooperation project with the Việt Nam-Japan Human Resource Corporation Centre (VJCC), many training courses have been organised for business management and executive teams, contributing to the development of high-quality industrial human resources and promoting economic growth.

The third is cooperation in the health sector. In addition to cooperation through three special-class hospitals that JICA has supported for a long time, namely Bạch Mai Hospital, Huế Central Hospital, and Chợ Rẫy Hospital, JICA will support the establishment of a distance learning system that applies digital transformation to enhance medical capacity for local-level medical facilities and boost the quality of medical examination and treatment. JICA will continue to cooperate and associate with Japanese private enterprises, non-governmental organisations and universities to support Việt Nam in improving rehabilitation techniques and nursing care to respond to emerging health problems in Việt Nam such as population ageing.

The fourth is cooperation to respond to climate change. JICA is researching and building renewable energy development projects in Việt Nam under the framework of the "Investment Financing for the Private Sector" activity. JICA will use the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through afforestation and forest protection activities, building a roadmap to promote a circular economy, contributing to realising the Vietnamese Government's goal of carbon emission neutrality by 2050.

What should Việt Nam do to access more ODA loans and use the loans more effectively and what where the disbursement results of ODA projects in Việt Nam in the first half of this year?

The purpose of ODA capital is to cooperate to contribute to Việt Nam's socio-economic development. For the implementation of ODA projects to be smooth, it is important that the country receiving ODA aid or ODA loan must have clear and easy-to-understand regulations and quick administrative procedures.

Delays in the approval process and complicated administrative procedures can cause the total project cost to increase due to inflation, exchange rate fluctuations and increased prices of materials and equipment. Therefore, JICA along with other donors such as the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are currently asking the Vietnamese Government to take measures to overcome the shortcomings. We believe that if the above shortcomings are fixed, ODA capital will be used more effectively.

Although the disbursement progress of the ODA projects in the first half of this year is a bit slow, we still predict that, in general, this year's target will be achieved. We are also making efforts to gradually resolve the problem of delayed payments at the projects. We will continue to coordinate with relevant Vietnamese agencies to accelerate disbursement progress to achieve faster efficiency. — VNS