President Trần Đại Quang meets with the WB Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Region,  Victoria Kwakwa in Hà Nội yesterday. — Photo VNA

Viet Nam News HÀ NỘI — President Trần Đại Quang called on the World Bank (WB) to fulfill its coordination role and to mobilise more financial support to help Việt Nam deal with challenges hindering its integration and socioeconomic development, especially climate change response, renewable energy development, health care, and education. 

The State leader met with the WB Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Region in Hà Nội yesterday, where he called for his guest’s backing of Việt Nam’s efforts to access preferential resources via the bank, particularly International Development Association loans. 

Congratulating Victoria Kwakwa on her new post as WB Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Region, the President said she will provide more assistance for regional countries, including Việt Nam. 

Việt Nam has always regarded the WB as the country’s leading development assistant partner, both financially and technically, the President said. 

The Vietnamese State and Government monitored the use of the bank’s loans to serve national socioeconomic development, the host noted. He added that thanks to this support, his country achieved noted achievements, especially in poverty reduction and socioeconomic development during 2011-15. 

In reply, Kwakwa stressed that she herself always treasures cooperation between the WB and Việt Nam, saying the decade-long relationship has yielded fruits benefiting both sides. 

Through Việt Nam’s success story, the Bank has proven its support, she said. She added that the WB hopes to partner with Việt Nam to build a strategy reflecting the country’s development priorities in the near future. 

The WB also wished to assist the Southeast Asian nation in actualising recommendations set forth in the “Vietnam 2035 Report” released earlier this year by the bank and the Vietnamese Government. 

Noting her desire for more opportunities to contribute to coping with drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta region, the official told her host that the bank would soon submit a number of projects on education reform, land management and policy reform, in combination with climate change response. 

She proposed President Quang instruct ministries and concerned agencies to create a cooperation strategy with the bank to realise such projects. 

Her views were shared by the Vietnamese State leader who said infrastructure development, especially in remote, far-flung and mountainous regions, is one of Việt Nam’s priorities at present. 

He promised to guide relevant ministries and agencies to work harder to complete negotiations, ensuring that several projects on education, climate change, green growth, and land management will be approved at the end of June. 

Calling on the WB to launch projects to help Việt Nam handle emerging challenges, the President affirmed that Vietnam has streamlined its administrative procedures and overhauled its economic growth model. — VNS