Australian Ambassador to Việt Nam,  Robyn Mudie and the World Bank Country Director for Việt Nam Ousmane Dione are at the signing ceremony on the extension of their strategic partnership in Việt Nam. — Photo courtesy of World Bank

HÀ NỘI — The World Bank Group and the Australian Government have agreed to extend their strategic partnership in Việt Nam with a commitment of a further AUD5 million (US$3.43 million) to support Việt Nam’s economic recovery and protect the most vulnerable from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds, provided by the Australian government and administered by the World Bank Group, are additional financing to the ongoing Australia-World Bank Group Strategic Partnership - Phase 2 (ABP2) that focuses on supporting Việt Nam’s development agenda through knowledge sharing and advising policy-making.

“The additional funding will help address emerging challenges and critical needs of Vietnam post COVID-19,” said Ousmane Dione, the World Bank Country Director for Việt Nam.

“By providing support in key areas such as private sector development, trade integration, and innovation, the program aims to help the country’s economy gain back its full potential in the fastest and most sustainable way,” he said.

“Việt Nam should be very proud of how it has tackled COVID-19. The next challenge for Việt Nam, as for Australia, will be to replicate the successes of the health response in the economic response,” said Robyn Mudie, Australian Ambassador to Việt Nam.

 “I am proud of the role the Australia-World Bank Group Strategic Partnership is playing in Việt Nam’s economic recovery. It will continue providing world-class economic advice and analysis for Viet Nam’s leaders and policy makers to accelerate economic recovery, with an increasingly strong focus on gender equality and social protection,” she said.

The Government of Việt Nam has been effective in containing the COVID-19 pandemic with a limited number of cases and no registered deaths. The pandemic, however, has shaken the country’s traditional resilience to external shocks with economic growth in the first quarter reaching only 3.8 per cent compared to projected growth of 6.5 per cent prior to the crisis.

In order to mitigate economic and social impacts of COVID-19, it is critical for the government to target sectors and activities that create jobs and improve long-term productivity and growth, such as infrastructure, innovation, social protection, health, and education, according to the World Bank.

To address the potential loss of human capital from COVID-19, the activities to be funded will protect and support vulnerable groups, including by strengthening social safety nets with more efficient and effective delivery of social security payments; narrowing human capital gaps, particularly for ethnic minorities, with a well-designed ethnic minority national targeted programme; and improving gender equality in legal frameworks.

The funds will also be directed towards economic recovery activities, including accelerating the execution of the investment programme while deepening trade integration, supporting the private sector in strengthening resilience against future shocks through structural reforms, and taking advantage of the digital agenda by reducing transaction costs for the government, people, and businesses.

This programme of work takes forward part of the AUD10.5 million commitment from Australia toward Việt Nam’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, discussed in a meeting between Australian Ambassador to Việt Nam, Robyn Mudie, and Việt Nam’s Minister for Planning and Investment, Nguyễn Chí Dũng, on 5 June 2020.

The ongoing ABP2 program, signed in April 2017, aims to support the country’s key national reforms, which are intended to gradually benefit millions of Vietnamese people and help the Southeast Asian country reach its ambition of becoming a high-income economy by 2045. — VNS